I wrote about this last year, and time has only confirmed my theory.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

libraries and librarians are going to have to be at the forefront of not just adopting new technologies and making them available to our user. We have to go several steps better. We need to adopt and develop expertise in those technologies so we can help our users become expert in using them, themselves.

I think we can (and should!) even go beyond Internet help and extend these drop-in sessions & more formal “Geek Out, Don’t Freak Out” (TM Andrea Mercado) sessions to the gadgetry of our patrons’ lives, too.

By providing patrons with both Q-and-A services, and short (5 miute) tutorials helping them to solve the computer problem they have just encountered, our value and worth in patrons’ eyes would expand exponentially.

We have been formally doing this at PPL since we moved in to our new library 2 years ago. We hired three “Tech Aides” to be members of our Reference Dept. and their primary job function is to help patrons troubleshoot computer problems of all sorts. In addition to them giving help on the floor of the library when we are open, we have at least 2 formal “Open Tech Times in the Lab” every week where people can drop in for in-depth help on software, hardware, etc. Our Tech Aides are so popular that we have customers requesting them by name and they all have what we dub their “groupies”.

Our librarians also supervise a program called Internet Drop-In where customers can drop in and ask questions about using the Internet. We also have several techie librarians on staff who will help troubleshoot.

Yes, it is a gaping hole and (with a little creativity) it can be filled.

By providing patrons with both Q-and-A services, and short (5 miute) tutorials helping them to solve the computer problem they have just encountered, our value and worth in patrons’ eyes would expand exponentially.

We have been formally doing this at PPL since we moved in to our new library 2 years ago. We hired three “Tech Aides” to be members of our Reference Dept. and their primary job function is to help patrons troubleshoot computer problems of all sorts. In addition to them giving help on the floor of the library when we are open, we have at least 2 formal “Open Tech Times in the Lab” every week where people can drop in for in-depth help on software, hardware, etc. Our Tech Aides are so popular that we have customers requesting them by name and they all have what we dub their “groupies”.

Our librarians also supervise a program called Internet Drop-In where customers can drop in and ask questions about using the Internet. We also have several techie librarians on staff who will help troubleshoot.

Yes, it is a gaping hole and (with a little creativity) it can be filled.

By providing patrons with both Q-and-A services, and short (5 miute) tutorials helping them to solve the computer problem they have just encountered, our value and worth in patrons’ eyes would expand exponentially.

We have been formally doing this at PPL since we moved in to our new library 2 years ago. We hired three “Tech Aides” to be members of our Reference Dept. and their primary job function is to help patrons troubleshoot computer problems of all sorts. In addition to them giving help on the floor of the library when we are open, we have at least 2 formal “Open Tech Times in the Lab” every week where people can drop in for in-depth help on software, hardware, etc. Our Tech Aides are so popular that we have customers requesting them by name and they all have what we dub their “groupies”.

Our librarians also supervise a program called Internet Drop-In where customers can drop in and ask questions about using the Internet. We also have several techie librarians on staff who will help troubleshoot.

Yes, it is a gaping hole and (with a little creativity) it can be filled.