Disclaimer: the author makes no pretense of the following opinions having any scientific basis or support whatsoever.
Generally, I think the benefit of the doubt used to be given more freely to people when they were doing stuff online. The friendly assumption usually applied that when someone was seated at a computer, it was for some serious purpose: research, correspondence, something like that.
Now? maybe not so much: without actually assuming the worst (people using computers are goofing off, killing time, browsing aimlessly, whatever) don't we more or less reserve judgment?
Case in point: what about those swell public access computers in the library's periodicals area? We know why we have them there (for people to use for research purposes, to send documents to library printers, etc.) but what do we know about their actual , and opposed to their intended use? Or what about laptops in class? It's not something I have much time to muse over, but when I'm lecturing, what's the likelihood that all the students who have their laptops booted up are using them to take notes, breathlessly writing down my every word?
This is not something new, I'm sure, but I've been coming across some interesting attempts to reflect, or be more self-aware, about why so many of us find it hard not to be online.
Examples:
- "Just Let Me Check One Last Thing . . . 24 Hours Without Google," from a recent issue of the Washington Post.
- And, as part of a list of recommended personal software programs, a tech writer in Slate describes his experiences with RescueTime, "a hardworking little program that monitors everything [he does on his]computer." The author discovers that he had spent 727 hours – roughly 1/3 of his time – online in the previous 3 months.
Me? One thing I do find helpful is to make on-the-fly notes during the course of an entire workday now and then (not often enough). This helps me not only to be brutally honest not only about how much time I am online, but how that time, in that environment, fits in with the other stuff I do. As with so many other things, we are all learning as we go.
DRS
~~~
Now, here's Library Scavenger Hunt Clue #7: Folio Exercise: Find this book.
Catalogue Title: (The) Book of common prayer, and administration of the sacraments, & other rites & ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the Church of England; together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches; & the form & manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons.
What is the call number?
What title appears on the spine?
Open to Psalm XXVII. What is the Latin subtitle for this psalm?
What does the small illustration of the T show?
Thanks for the post, interesting stuff.
Or what about laptops in class?
Personally I think any electronic device (apart from calculators) should be banned from classrooms (unless it's an IT room of course).
Posted by: Flyer | March 29, 2009 at 03:32 AM