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Networks and CD-ROMs Aid Research, Development and Education in Zimbabwe
4. Gimbel, Amy Auerbacher, "Preliminary Report on the AAAS
Database Access Survey of African Institutions," Oct. 1993.
5. Hayman, John, "Bridging Higher Education's Technology Gap
in Africa," T.H.E. Journal, 20(6), Jan. 1993, pp. 63-68.
6. Stix, Gary and Paul Wallich, "A Digital Fix for the Third
World?", Scientific American, 269(4) Oct. 1993, p89.
Products mentioned:
Nautilus CD, Dublin, Ohio, (800) 637-3472
Linux (Yggdrasil Plug-and-Play Linux); Walnut Creek
Software, Concord, Calif., (800) 786-9907
If Not Us, Who?
by Lynn Lyndes, Librarian
I know a lot of school librarians who are reluctant to jump on
the technology bandwagon.
Who knows what their trepidations are? Perhaps it is the fear
that they don't understand the technology well enough, or an
attitude that things should remain the same; maybe they feel they
don't "need" technology, that things work fine in their library just
the way they are.
Too bad. Attitudes like those would never have produced the
Dewey Decimal System, the telephone, or much else for that
matter.
It's time to reach out to the 21st century (only five years away)!
It's time to take command of the "information highways," to
acknowledge that the Information Age is upon us and it
behooves us to understand it, use it and promote it! This is
especially true of school librarians.
We are the ones who are teaching the leaders of the future.
These kids need to know how to access information
electronically. If we don't teach them, who will? And wh'ever
you answer that question with, it is the wrong person.
It is librarians who have always provided information and
research findings. It is librarians who have always sought and
explored all possibilities to get answers. Now that much (or
even most) information is electronic, we librarians have to learn
to access this new retrieval system.
If we don't, we do a disservice not only to students and
teachers, but also to our own profession as well. Librarianship
will be held back from transforming itself into what it needs to
become in order to survive.
Computers are this generation's medium. Kids are drawn to
them like a magnet. Once a computer g'es into the library, kids
will follow -- and for good reason.
Plus, lesson plans and teacher-centered activities are going
high-tech. Soon most teachers will be using videodiscs and
digitally based information every day in their classrooms. They'll
soon need a specialist to help them integrate material effectively.
Districts will likewise need people who can provide reviews and
information on various products and services, who know how to
evaluate information sources. This respon-sibility falls to the
librarians.
