IL04: “creating internet-savvy public library users”
After spending the past six weeks talking to Iowa librarians about teaching computers to the public, both the how and why, this was a very informative and reinforcing presentation. The presenters were Michael Stephens and Jamie Wilson.
Michael gave us a great history of Internet training back to 1995, focusing on what we taught back then leading up to what we’re teaching now. (From “what is it” to “how do I do particular things with it.” Many of the same things that Michael suggested public libraries should be teaching (and why they should be teaching them) were the exact same things we came up with in my IA workshops.
Jamie’s presentation took a look at the same items from the school (k-12) library perspective. This was less of interest to me but only because, unfortunately, I get very few school librarians in my workshops. (Especially since for the past year-and-a-half I’ve been doing Gates Foundation funded workshops which have been solely for public librarians.)
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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