Inter-Thing Observations

I took this week to observe the real world of the public service floor and sample some of the comments in some of the blogs, and the disconnect has been amazing. Not the surreal blogs--and you know who you are--but the serious, earnest folks who think that the 23 Things and Library 2.0 are the answer to everything library. To quote that profound philosopher Sportin' Life: It ain't necessarily so.

Library 2.0 presupposes easy anytime access to computers and associated devices, computer skills, functional literacy, among other things. These are mostly the province of the middle class and those determined to join it. Come and visit any big-city--or even medium city--downtown library and get a look at those who are too poor to own a device, too ill-educated to apply for unemployment online, or a combination of both. All the goodies I've seen so far will do nothing for these people because they are not in a place where they can use them, and they may have more need for connection than most of my brother and sister bourgeois do.

Library 2.0 has an infrastructure problem besides the usual problems with connectivity, hardware, software, and malware. It has a human infrastructure problem that is being ignored. Unless and until the quality of education for the entire population improves, and people have both the income and leisure time to devote to acquiring and using devices the whole thing is going create another society of have-nots--technological this time. We can promote the tech all we want, but until people have both the education and the means to use it, it is going to be just another middle-class indulgence.