What should I know about agnosia?
LIBRARIAN 2.0 AND AGNOSIA
Stephen Abrams, in his article Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World, saw Librarian 2.0 as striving to “Combine e-resources and print formats and is container and format agnostic”.
To me this means that, when asked for information, we:
- clarify the question
- find out how complex the information should be
- find out how authoritative the information should be, and then
- retrieve/provide it via print, electronic resource, papyrus or podcast - whichever provides the required information best.
Knowledge of the format is not essential - so format/container is ignored as irrelevant unless specified by our client.
SOFTWARE AGNOSIA - GOOD?
In 1996, during a presentation about IT in Western Australian Public Libraries, I suggested that future IT competencies shouldn’t include familiarity with particular software like Dynix or InMagic, but generalist skills like “knowing that help screens exist and how to find them on any software”. It applies today.
Take truncation characters in database searching. There are 3 approaches you could use. They are:
- have a general rule like “try an * and if that doesn’t work know how to find out what does”. (Most useful)
- know how to search the help screens to find out what the character is. (Middling useful)
- memorise the specific characters for each database. (Least useful)
There are so many new sources to search that probably specific knowledge is less useful than generalised rules.
Software agnosia would mean being comfortable with whichever software you need to achieve something - even if it is different from what you used last time, or substantially changed or upgraded. Tool doesn’t matter, results do. If a screen has changed, delve into your skills toolkit, work out how to use it, then get on with it. To get this toolkit, I think you need exposure to lots of software, kind handholding when necesssary and LOTS of playtime.(Technically, a program is labelled “software agnostic” if it doesn’t need to run on a specified platform or hardware.)
USER AGNOSIA - BAD
How can this be reconciled with a user-centered approach? I don’t know. Many librarians, when presented with new software, want a written step-by-step walkthrough and procedures. If that’s what they want, then it’s unfair to say “well - learn some generalist skills and you’ll be able to work it out for yourself”. But providing those step-by-step procedures does not help them to develop a generalist approach. Procedures are useful to ensure standardization and security, but I’m talking basic “how to’s” here.
The crux is competencies. Twenty years ago it was unreasonable to insist that librarians, accountants or doctors do their own wordprocessing. Given that we assess information and present it to our users, I hope that within another 5 years it will be reasonable to ask librarians to do the following (within the network security arrangements for their libraries) - without written step-by-step instructions for specific software:
- Install software from the web
- Sign up to a web based service (eg. Flickr or Bloglines)
- Post to forums and blogs
- Deliver information using pamphlets, IM, SMS, telephone, email, web pages, blogs, personal communication, audio files, video files, screencasts or the Next Big Thing.
Or, am I having user agnosia and this stuff should remain the realm of specialists?
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