One of our cool Reference librarians came to see me right before I left for CA. We talked shop and Macs and music..and I thought back to this post, written at PLA as he described with excitement his plans for a new computer purchase:
Public Libraries should do everything they can to provide a computer — a laptop — for all of their librarians. (it’s also a pretty snazzy perk in a job where there aren’t bonuses and the like…) We have it GOOD at SJCPL, each manager gets a 15″ Powerbook and the means to take it anywhere! I am proud of the group that is out here for PLA who brought their Macs. We need to be unwired, in our libraries for sure because you never know when an opportunity or “teaching moment” could appear with a patron or another employee. We need to use laptops at meetings as well. Our most recent managers meeting minutes were taken entirely on a laptop and then emailed to all after a bit of finessing.
I would expand that thought to all librarians on staff at a library — if possible. Give them the means to take technology with them: home, the coffee spot, conferences… You’ll reap a tech savvy staff that are not afraid of teaching someone how to join the wirelss network at the library’s cafe.
Addendum: Now in Monterey, this becomes clearer to me. The unwired librarian, attending a conference like this, being encouraged to note take and interact with collegaues (on site and across the globe), exchanging information is a cool cool cool idea.