Tag Archives: Libraries

Earlier this week Amazon released their new e-book reader, Kindle, which Newsweek has referred to as the “ipod of reading.”  While that headline may be the hype Amazon needed to sell out their supply in only 5 ½ hours, many of us are left scratching our heads wondering whether or not this product could launch the e-book mainstream, or fall flat; I’d rather not buy into the hype right now. With that said, one thing I can buy into are the remarks given by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in his appearance on the Charlie Rose show. Bezos sees the greater role of technology that Digital Humanists see. Fashioning his remarks to promote Amazon’s products, I’d suggest that Jeff’s perspective of the role of technology in business is directly applicable to the role of technology in education.

The internet is a horizontal enabling technology. This is why I know it’s still early in the development of the internet, because people still talk about “internet companies.” If you go back to the early 20th century people talked about “electric companies,” and they didn’t mean electric utilities, but they meant companies that use electricity. But electricity is a horizontal enabling layer – it helped all companies. [...] What we’ve seen today is that the internet is still thought of [as] vertical, and that’s how I know it’s early because every company is benefiting from the Internet.

Jeff’s quote is incredibly insightful. The internet is a horizontal enabling technology, whose role isn’t limited to tech-savvy humanists, but offers benefits to all educators alike. While the competitive market may advance the increased use of the internet by companies (that Jeff discusses), what are the forces pushing the adoption of technology and paradigm shifts within academia? When will the term “digital humanities” become redundant, with the frequent use of technology in the humanities? Jeff has a vision of larger technology trends, and I would wager a guess that his insight is what likely makes him successful in running Amazon. It’s something worthwhile to keep in mind about our own jobs. That is in no way to diminish the role of Digital Humanists today, but rather to state the complete opposite. The increased role of Information Technology in the Humanities is inevitable, and the work that Digital Humanists are doing today will become much more commonplace in the future.

Using the new Facebook platform, several libraries have established a presence by creating applications. These applications are added by users and allow information to be displayed within Facebook’s website — even a user’s profile. Michigan, UIUC, and Ryerson U have all led the pack with the earliest of these academic applications.

While these new apps gesture toward the possible future of social networking sites and create a tacit relationship between academic institutions and individuals, I’m uncertain if that’s desirable for most users. A friend recently remarked that it seems to cross the “unspoken line between school and cool.” She may be onto something. For the average student, adding a library application on Facebook isn’t the least bit desirable considering these apps simply put a library catalog searchbar within the Facebook canvas – things you can already do on the library’s website. Adding an application that’s solely a utility for school seems to cross that unspoken line. Moreover, the function of “adding” something in Facebook, be that a friend, special-interest group or application is a representation of the user, and if a user doesn’t already have a relationship with the library and that’s all the application is, then there’s little reason for them to add that app.

The applications that ARE successful so far augment interactions between friends and preexisting relationships – whether that’s sharing information on movies that you’ve seen, turning your friends into zombies, or throwing sheep at them. Facebook’s model is based entirely upon openness and sharing. Sharing is “cool.” If libraries focus on a model of sharing with their apps, they could find much greater success in attracting casual users (you know, the ones who don’t usually hang out in the library).

In my ideal library application, I should be able to share a list of the books I’ve currently signed out of the library, or books that have helped with a research project. My friends could then see the items I shared, and potentially use that information to return to the library. In that process of sharing, the library (or creator of these apps) facilitates these interactions, and becomes a larger part of our lives. If we’re looking for new ways to promote libraries or academic projects, then innovative uses of Facebook applications may be a great nontraditional place to start.