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METAFORIX MAIL
Volume 2, Issue
2 August 27, 2001
Sites and
insights for the Information Age
Regular readers
know of our continuing interest in e-health -- the quality of healthcare
information, products, and services offered on the Internet. Metaforix
continues to work with the Internet Healthcare Coalition and will participate
in its upcoming conference,
"Quality Healthcare Information on the 'Net 2001: New Challenges, Opportunities
and Directions," to be held November 5 through 7 in Washington, DC. If
you share our interest in e-health, consider attending this conference.
You can help shape the Coalition's agenda and the future of healthcare
on the Internet.
If this issue of Metaforix Mail contains a fact or insight that a colleague
would find valuable, we invite you to forward a copy. We would be delighted
to add that person to our list of subscribers.
Thanks for reading.
CONTENTS
AT A GLANCE:
ON
MY MIND: Looking Like a Librarian
METAFORIX MAIL ARCHIVES
INFORMATICON: Generating Misunderstandings
DIGITAL DIVIDE: Bridging the Gap
LISTS
WE LIKE: Arts Beat
A BYTE OF THE INFORMATION AGE
CYBERSPEAK: Boom or Bust?
ON MY MIND
[From the Editor]
A Stereotype
Retires
More
years ago than I care to count, I completed a Master's degree in Library
and Information Science and took a job on the reference staff at a two-year
college. I felt confident that the stereotypically severe, unsmiling librarian,
forever shushing the world into decorous silence, had gone the way of
the gas lamp and the hose-drawn carriage.
It didn't take very long to learn how far off the mark I was. Despite
our mandatory graduate degrees, faculty status, teaching responsibilities,
and service on college committees, my library colleagues and I were at
the bottom of the academic pecking order. Faculty in "academic" departments
-- including automotive repair, physical education, and secretarial science,
along with more traditional disciplines -- failed to appreciate our qualifications
or our contributions. They rarely made a distinction between our work
and the important, but very different, work of other library employees
who reshelved books or delivered videos to classrooms.
By the time I left the library for other pursuits, some dozen years later,
the stereotyping and the status issues had really gotten to me. By then,
I had a second Master's degree and a list of accomplishments to my credit.
The world was beginning to use computers to store and retrieve information.
Searching computerized databases in real time was slow, expensive, and
an enviable skill possessed by only a few people -- most of whom were
librarians. But there were still too many librarians for too few underpaid
jobs.
Pretty soon, when I spoke at a conference or met new colleagues, I began
to omit the library part of my resume, except on the rare occasions when
it suited my purpose. Not until the Internet became hot and widely available
did I move my background in what had become known as "information services"
to the foreground once again.
I wasn't alone. Librarians' skills came into greater demand and library
school curriculums began to place greater emphasis on information technologies.
As a result, librarians began to migrate from historically underpaid public
sector jobs to private sector positions and independent consulting. Simultaneously,
baby boomers (I, among them) have continued inexorably to age and some
have now begun to retire.
Over coming twelve years, according to the American
Library Association, almost half the nation's "fully qualified" librarians
-- those with Master's degrees -- will retire. It will be difficult for
library schools to fill the gap and impossible for public sector employers
to match the salaries and opportunities available in the private sector.
As a partial response, the ALA has launched a five-year campaign to update
the image of the profession.
As reported last week in the New
York Times, the organization has developed marketing materials
-- including a web site and public service ads -- featuring a diverse
array of lively "human search engines." Their personal interests range
from hip-hop to holistic health, jogging to jazz. What they share is the
wish to replace the schoolmarm image.
The 21st century librarian is youthful, cyberliterate, socially conscious,
and athletic. He or she appeals to young people regardless of gender or
ethnicity and serves as a walking, jogging, or in-line skating recruitment
poster for the profession.
Now, if the ALA can manage not to create an age stereotype for the 21st
century, this could turn out to be a wonderful thing.
Your
comments are welcome. Please e-mail Lois C. Ambash, editor@metaforix.com
METAFORIX
MAIL ARCHIVES
Access previous
issues of Metaforix Mail by date by visiting our archives. Or use the
search box on any page of the Metaforix site (www.metaforix.com)
to search by keywords.
INFORMATICON
[a
provocative quote, statistic, or piece of data]
Generation:
A Word Past Its Prime?
excerpt from Jay
Tolson's article in U. S. News, 8/13/01
"Too often, the term generation is used to impose the experiences and attitudes
of a relatively small group upon a whole generational cohort, regardless
of significant regional, class, ethnic, and other differences within it.
(African-American boomers, for example, are generally more conservative
in core values than white boomers.) While there's relative unanimity about
what a human biological generation is -- roughly the time it takes for a
member of the species to bring a replacement into the world -- the definitions
of a historical generation vary greatly, depending on whom you talk to.
Some stress values, attitudes, and shared experiences. Others emphasize
stark demographic data, such as birthrates. Marketing Prof. Charles Schewe
of the University of Massachusetts prefers to . . . 'talk about cohorts
rather than generations.What happens to a cohort of individuals coming
of age between 17 and 24, what they share in the way of defining events
and experiences, c! an create values that remain with them for the rest
of their lives." But to University of Toronto economist David Foot, . .
. experiences, attitudes, and values matter far less than the brute fact
of numbers. The size of a generation even largely determines what those
experiences and values will be, Foot argues. The bigger the numbers, the
flusher the economy, the happier the times, the more optimistic the generation.
'The numbers have a way of predisposing generations to see certain experiences
as their formative ones,'he says."
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Virtual
Desktops for One and All
The
Internet is no longer a curiosity or a luxury. In some industries, it is
as integral to routine business transactions as the telephone.
As a result, people who don't have Internet access are at a serious disadvantage
-- especially if they are looking for jobs.
The city of Houston, in partnership with SimDesk, a locally-based application
service provider, has launched an innovative response to this problem. Dubbed
SimHouston,
the program will make free Internet access, e-mail accounts, word processing
software, and document storage available free to all city residents, regardless
of income. Among other benefits, the accounts will allow users to create
and send electronic resumes.
Individual "virtual desktop" will initially be made available at public
libraries in Houston's low-income neighborhoods. Plans call for access to
be extended over the next few months to all public library branches, along
with government offices and other facilities such as fire houses and police
stations.
SimDesk, also known as Internet
Access Technologies, is exploring similar deals with other major cities,
including Chicago and Indianapolis. Future contracts may include partnerships
with Internet service providers, such as AOL or Earthlink.
LISTS
WE LIKE
The Weekly
e-Letter of ArtsJournal.com
If
you're a lover of the arts, here's a list you'll want to subscribe to --
and a site worth visiting frequently.
Every week, founding editor Douglas J. McLennan and his two colleagues scan
some 200 publications in search of "the best arts and cultural journalism
in the English-speaking world." Brief summaries and direct links to the
stories are posted on the site beginning at 5:00 am Pacific Time each weekday.
The site adheres to the refreshing policy of linking only to sites that
are free and do not require visitors to register -- with the single exception
of The New York Times, which requires a one-time free registration.
Arts Journal's coverage ranges far and wide, from ballet to publishing to
new media to the politics surrounding the arts in various countries. McLennan,
a Julliard-educated musician, is a former arts reporter and columnist whose
site is obviously a labor of love.
The Sunday "Arts Beat" e-letter recaps the stories of the past week (and
reminds you to visit the site in case you haven't gotten there yet). To
join the list, send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to:
Artsbeat@ArtsJournal.com
CYBERSPEAK
[The vocabulary of the information age]
It Depends
on What the Meaning of "Boom" Is
Kara
Swisher writes a weekly column on the high-tech economy for The
Wall Street Journal. It's called "Boom Town."
Earlier this month, Swisher asked readers whether the current fortunes
of the high-tech industry dictated a change in the name of the column.
(I would include a link to the column, which appeared on August 13, but
the Journal is -- and has been since its digital inception -- available
only by paid subscription.)
Between Monday morning, when the article was posted, and Friday morning,
the deadline for e-mailed responses, Swisher heard from 284 readers, 46%
of whom thought "Boom Town" still filled the bill. She posted a total
of 28 responses, mine among them. Here it is, as slightly edited by Swisher:
My trusty American Heritage Dictionary tells me that a boom is a "deep,
resonant sound, as of an explosion." Fast forward to [the definition of
explosion], where I learn that it (a) releases energy "in a sudden and
often violent manner with the generation of high temperature and usually
with the release of gases" or (b) is a "violent bursting as a result of
internal pressure" or (c) is the "loud, sharp sound" made by (a) or (b).
An explosion can also be "a sudden, often vehement outburst" or "a sudden,
great increase."
I conclude from my brief lexicographic foray that a boom town may be characterized
by high energy, feverish activity, lots of noise (self-important, emphatic,
prophetic, angry or just plain loud), sudden great increases in all kinds
of things and large quantities of hot air.
So it seems to me that Boom Town is the perfect postmodern name for a
post-postindustrial column. I say stick with it.
A
BYTE OF THE INFORMATION AGE
Learn
how Metaforix can help you and your business take a byte of the Information
Age.
See what we have to offer at www.metaforix.com
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Volume 2, Issue 1 August 10, 2001
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