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Great reflection Sarah 🙂
I liked your point that librarians need different skills depending on the discipline they support. Librarians are constantly updating their skills to keep up with changes in the research landscape. However, you imply that while librarians make an effort to gain new skills, academics do not. I was interested in your comment that perhaps instead of librarians, researchers need to be reskilled. Do you think that  it is the role of the librarian to help researchers to gain new skills, or should academics take more responsibility for learning new technologies?
Great reflection Stacey! I really appreciated your discussion of tech-based makerspaces like the Edge being spaces for a certain male-dominated subculture. I have always wanted to go to something at the Edge, but have always been put off by the thought that I wouldn’t fit into that scene. I was glad to see that you felt the same way. It is amazing how some spaces can feel gendered and exclusive, although I’m sure the creators of the Edge did not intend it to be perceived that way.
Really thoughtful post Saurav. I thought you dealt with the issues related to setting up makerspaces really well. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the hype of trying new programs, but sometimes these may not be suited to the library in economic and other terms.
Interesting post Peldon 🙂
It doesn’t seem like much of an effort was made to make the ‘makerspace’ interactive and engaging. As you say, people can do the same activity at their own home. It is a pity there weren’t more people participating in the same activity. It doesn’t sound as if the library made much of an effort to differentiate the makerspace from the rest of the library. I agree, perhaps their program would benefit from further research. It is a good reminder that libraries can’t just dedicate a time or space to an activity and expect people to use it, concerted effort needs to go in to the planning, designing and implementation of programs.
Great trends reflection Sarah! You raised some really interesting points about the way digital literacy tends to be taught which I found really interesting. I think the point you raised that people learn by doing is really important. I think libraries sometimes forget this when designing digital literacy programs or training in using databases and other resources. The tendency is to bombard people with information without necessarily getting them to do activities that apply the knowledge. As you mention the best way to learn is by doing, perhaps we need to rethink the way we approach digital literacy to take this into account 🙂
Don’t feel guilty! I don’t think the librarians would have minded, it increases their circulation stats 🙂
I agree that there isn’t really a culture of borrowing out books from academic libraries for leisure reading, which I think is a shame. A leisure reading collection would hopefully change that, but I don’t think libraries will adopt it any time soon.
Thanks for your post 🙂Thanks for your reply Shannon L)
I definitely agree that there is potentially a risk that leisure readers could become a minority. I know that among my friends I am the only one who reads for pleasure consistently.
Thanks for the heads up 🙂 I’ll see if I can fix them 🙂Thanks for the comment Ruth
I love that people are using BONUS to borrow leisure reading books 🙂 I had never thought of doing it before, but why not?Great reflection Caitlin 🙂
I too am alarmed at the rate at which government services are going online. I’m a 20-something-year-old and even I find e-government services difficult to navigate. Where I can I will always try to speak to a real person over to the phone or go in to a service centre. Part of me thinks that the part of the solution is not promoting digital literacy, but improving online services so that they are easier to use. This, however, will not assist those who do not have access to technology, which is a whole other problem all together.
Hi Lisa! Really enjoyable post. I think your story demonstrated the unique skills of librarians as problem solvers. I am always amazed at the amount of information that people expect librarians to know, but I think that is a good thing, because as your story shows it means that we can differentiate ourselves and the services we provide and remain relevant to clients.
Great post Debbie! I definitely agree that librarians are the best placed to teach digital literacy skills to the public. I’m curious, do you think public libraries are currently doing enough to encourage digital literacy, or can we do more?
(Also, just a heads up, in your first sentence I think you mean disseminate, not decimate. Probably auto-correct’s fault 🙂 )
Great post Chris! I also wonder if the demographic of the suburb in which the library is in might also have been a reason for low class numbers. I also wonder whether libraries market these classes as well as they can. I think you’re right though, there is a lot of talk about digital literacy, but it does seem to be a hard one to put into practice.
Really insightful trends reflection Luke! I sometimes feel that reading has taken a backseat to emerging technologies too. For example, while I am really enjoying this degree it is much less resources/collections focused than I had expected. I think that being aware of and knowing about emerging technologies is really important to what librarians do and I agree that libraries need to do more to promote reading. I am shocked that some librarians don’t see the importance of leisure reading!
