What’s trending in libraries from the internet cybersphere – digital clutter
| Published date | 04 April 2016 |
| Date | 04 April 2016 |
| Pages | 15-16 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-02-2016-0008 |
| Author | Adetoun A. Oyelude |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
What’s trending in libraries from the internet
cybersphere – digital clutter
Adetoun A. Oyelude
This is the first edition of the column for
2016. The vignettes from the Internet this
year will be mainly from blogs. This
edition covers issues germane mainly
to libraries, technology use and
maintenance of digital devices used.
2016 future technology
considerations
Executives in the IT industry may be
looking at three major issues in 2016.
These are: Backup, File Storage and
Access Control issues. Nancy Newkirk
on 3rd December 2016 conjectured in her
post that these issues are or will continue
to be technology problems that
executives try to solve. Get to know more
from www.idgenterprise.com/resource/
blog/looking-ahead-to-2016-the-technolo
gy-areas-were-considering/
Are you really smart?
David McRaney in a post of 25
November 2015 highlights how search
engines make us feel we are smarter
than we really are. He quotes the work
of Mathew Fisher and describes an
experiment carried out.
“According to the early studies of
researcher Matthew Fisher, the side
effect of a familiarity with search
engines is an inflated sense of internal
knowledge. Habitual googling leads
us to mistakenly believe we know
more than we actually do about any
given subject – and here is the crazy
part – that intuition persists even in
moments in which we no longer have
access to the internet. The more you
use Google, it seems, the smarter you
feel without it”. More can be read
from http://youarenotsosmart.com/20
15/11/25/yanss-063-how-search-engi
nes-make-us-feel-smarter-than-we-re
ally-are/ and more of Fisher’s
research on internalizing knowledge
can be seen at http://campuspress.yal
e.edu/matthewfisher/files/2015/03/
pdf-16ueczx.pdf
Creating a culture for reading and
readers
Sue Fritzgerald posted on 2nd and 9th
January 2016 about events occurring in a
library to promote a culture for reading
and for readers. Through new furniture
and new programmes in the library,
students were encouraged to come in
to use the facility. Asking the students to
participate in making changes to
the library worked wonders. The student
library aides helped create a digital
library flipagram. In addition, three new
café tables acquired by the library
brought this about. The librarian cashed
in on that to talk to the users about books
and reading. “Now I’m not saying these
three tables will magically entice our
students to read. I am saying look at
something as easy as new furniture,
hosting clubs, opening for lunches or
before school, to help build the trust and
relationships that will be the foundation
for creating a culture of readers”.
Connecting positively with users is the
aim. More on this can be found at http://
unpretentiouslibrarian.blogspot.com.ng/
What to do with digital clutter
What do you do with all the
unwanted mails, tweets and other
digital trash you get? It may be
worthwhile learning how to get rid of
them. The simple reason is that clutter
breeds more clutter. From http://toptr
ends.nowandnext.com/2015/11/24/
digital-clean-up/ comes the following:
“When people notice that others have
violated the social norm of keeping a
common work area neat, they become
much more likely to litter that space,
according to João Ramos of PwC
Australia and Benno Torgler of
Queensland University of Technology. In
their study of professors, postgraduate
students, and a departmental common
room at a university, the researchers
found that 59 per cent of people littered
when the room was already disordered, as
compared with 18 per cent when it was
neat. The findings suggest that
eliminating signs of disorder may be an
effective method of maintaining
workplace compliance”. This statement
stems from a paper by Ramos and
Torgler (2015) full text downloadable at
www.crema-research.ch/papers/2009-21.
pdf titled “Are Academics Messy? Testing
the Broken Windows Theory with a Field
Experiment in the Work Environment”. It
is worth the read; it is trending.
Coding in libraries
From the blogspot of The
Unpretentious Librarian (a blog of the
collaborative ideas, programming and
thoughts of a secondary school
librarian) found at http://unpretentiou
slibrarian.blogspot.com.ng/ comes the
report on a coding event at the Pike
Middle School Library. The
unpretentious librarian in the 19
January 2016 blog spoke about
teaching coding to secondary school
students. An Hour of Code event is
on, where computer science is
demystified in a one-hour programme.
This programme can be organized
anywhere in the world, at least in 108
countries. People aged 4 to 104 can
gain a lot from being taught to code.
Read more about it from
https://hourofcode.com/us
Netvibes programming the Web
You may be familiar with Internet
of Things (IoT) but now Netvibes, a
subsidiary of Dassault Systemes, has
created a Dashboard of Things (DoT).
“With DoT, you can now create
Potions to automate interactions
between your data, app and devices
connected to your dashboard. If A
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 2 2016, pp. 15-16, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-02-2016-0008 15
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