Assignment #1

I have to take issue with the basis of Clifford Lynch's argument in his paper Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture. His thesis is deeply in his presumption that users have a.)the know-how and b.) access to computers and technology. Tangentially, what about those who simply don't care if they're computer literate--are they just going to disappear? What of non-traditional users, of the elderly, those who don't use English as their first language; what of disabled users? Lynch hasn't allowed for them. His argument states that understanding technology will be essential for success in "all walks of life." While I recognize that computer literacy is desirable and important, I simply can't accept it as the end all be all that Lynch is making it out to be.


Jason Vaughan's look at Lied Library in his case study was thoughtful and descriptive (if not a little obvious). He provided a quite balanced look at both the challenge and the ease of running the technical aspects of a large academic library. Perhaps it's because this article is fairly dated, but I wasn't all that surprised by any of his points (in fact, several times, I caught myself rolling my eyeys and thinking "DUH"). Nonetheless, this article is likely a good starting point for those totally out of the loop in the digital library world.

Muddiest point 1

At this point, I'm mostly unsure of due dates for assignments. I guess I'm confused between assignment 1 & the creation of the blog itself. I think the reading assignments are due tonight and the blog is due on Tuesday? Not sure.