Week 1 Muddiest Points

My Muddiest Point is the Muddiest Point

In lecture on Monday, August 29th, Professor He made a joke that the Muddiest Point for the week would be the Muddiest Point - and that's actually true for me! I would like more clarification on where the Muddiest Point should come from - should it be from lecture, the required readings, or both?

Context for Content

The article Information Format Trends: Content, Not Container discusses the lack of context our content-rich society provides for information seekers and the information professional's need to supply this context (pages 13-15). I would like to learn more about how libraries are facing this challenge and see some concrete examples for more clarity on this concept.

Week 1 Reading Notes

2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers

My overall impression of this article is that it reinforces one of Professor He's main ideas from his lecture (8/26) - that libraries and information institutions must evolve to remain relevant in this rapidly changing digital age. Libraries must use information technology to keep up with new trends in information access, dissemination and production. Several topics, terms and ideas stood out to me in this article relating to this transformational time.

• The idea that library users/information seekers are "format agnostic" (page 2)
• This development further stresses the need for libraries to look beyond print and into providing information through a variety of formats. This reminds me of my experience with the Seattle Public Library and the ease with which users can access books, magazines and other resources using mobile devices such as smart phones and e-readers. Although the process isn't without some hiccups, this versatility can satisfy the desires of diverse users.
• "[Libraries] must manage content that is unbound from any sort of identifiable container." (page 3)
• Keeping in mind that this article is from 2004, I'm curious as to how libraries today manage unbound content, and what exactly this means. Is this referring to information found in blogs, wikis, etc? If so, how could libraries manage the information found and generated within these containers? 
• McLuhan's declaration that "The medium is the message." (page 3)
• I'm a little confused by this statement. I believe he is trying to say that the containers and methods of access send a message about our society. Since many people within our society produce and retrieve information from Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, etc, what does this show about what our society values? That we value social relationships? That we trust the information we get from open source locations? 
•  The article points out that libraries in 2004 did not track the content send via email. (page 3)
• Do libraries today have the ability to track content sent via email? If so, what could they use this information for?
• The discussion on "microcontent" and "micropayment". (page 6)
• What is the perspective on these topics today? The article states, "Pieces of microcontent do not currently figure large in the collections of libraries..." I wonder, what would microcontent in a library look like, exactly? Would the "Ask a Librarian" online service provided by many libraries be an example?

• Thought: why does the income level of blog users matter? Is it just a surprising fact or does it have implications in the way libraries deliver services? (page 7)
• "We no longer lack content but we do context." (page 15)
• I'm finding this concept a little vague. Does context for LIS purposes mean the type of information source? That's what the graphic on page 15 leads me to believe.

Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture

• "Teaching of the two sets of literacy skills thus need to be closely coordinated." (page 2)
• I hadn't really considered the distinction between information literacy and information technology literacy before reading this article. I had always assumed they were one in the same. 
• "Technology is now pervasively reshaping commerce, communications, and society; in business, science and government, for example, recognizing the effects and opportunities -- and
  sometimes threats -- created by these transformations is becoming
  increasingly central. " (page 4)
• Coming from a humanities background, I don't have a strong understanding of the infrastructure and systems that support information technology and it's tools; however, I am beginning to see how this knowledge would be helpful as a librarian serving information seekers in a public library setting (particularly in under-served communities, which I am most interested in). 
• "For example, they need to be guided in developing mental models of the relationships among
  documents on the Internet, proprietary databases, library collections and the like. As part of this map, they need to develop a sense of what information sources are likely to be most appropriate for their various information needs." (page 5)
• Is this an example of the context challenge presented in the article Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers?