I'm back in Washington for Computers In Libraries and have made it through the first day. I didn't have time to blog each of the sessions I went to during the day, so I'm going to make entries for them all separately now as I rest up from a busy day.
The conference opened with the requisite count of the people signed up (this year just under 2,000) as well as the states and nations represented (no one from Idaho, Alaska & Hawaii). The most memorable quote from the opening statements was one which the attendees were asked to consider for comments on the conference evaluation, "Technology is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other." -- C.P. Snow
The first day's keynote was provided by the always entertaining and thought provoking Lee Rainie from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Rainie's keynote focused on categories of communities that make the Internet what it is. Starting with Manuel Castell's four communities which have shaped the Internet (techno-elites, hackers (of the Linux coding variety, not malicious lawbreakers), entrepreneurs, and "network creators") and proceeding to describe four particular kinds of communities that have developed with their own agendas (social climbers, posse/vigilante groups, specialized support groups, and alternative news source groups), Rainie provided a vision of libraries filling a role to educate their constituencies of Internet communities and how to navigate them.
In particular he emphasized the new kinds of literacies which we can teach: screen literacy (graphics & symbols), navigation literacy, connections & context literacy. The library also offers a forum to express healthy skepticism towards information found on the Internet and a place where the value of contemplative time is understood and encouraged. His vision of a place for libraries in a world where print is declining in importance as it is supplanted (in part) by digital was encouraging.
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