Yesterday, I drove back into Chicago to Dominican University to speak at Prof. Bill Crowley’s Public Libraries class. What fun! What great students. We had three hours of engaging discussion about technology in public libraries from OPACS to RFID and back again through blogs, RSS and building tech-spaces.
One of the women in the class mentioned libraries wanting to have the sexy technology because it was cool. Oh yes! Technolust! What a great way to describe it: sexy. RFID is sexy. WiFi is rather sexy. Federated searching? SEXY!
I was impressed with the student’s questions – one about copyright stopped me in my tracks with its deepness: Who will win in the copyright wars? The technology makers, the people, the libraries, the content providers? Another shared that her 11 year old daughter is using IM and loving it. A large buddy list, she reported, is a symbol of status….
Lunch beforehand with Prof. Crowley was darn cool as well. We talked libraries, my future PhD endeavor and what it’s like in the academic world.
Here’s my presentation. Take a look at the screenshot of Aaron and I sharing the document via IM for him to give it a once over.
Dominican is lovely… I hope to go back again soon!