Bottom Line on Electronic Libraries -Reply

[Diane Nahl]

The practical question "Is it better to have Web access without help than
to have no Web access at all?" presents a false dichotomy. This is what
our ITS director said to the faculty after implementing universal access
for all students in our system, rendering it impossible for faculty to go
online, but I digress. 

To me, the issue is even more practical: since we must have Web access for
everyone, how can we provide the help, assistance, instruction, training
that we know is sorely needed to really utilize this technology within our
current constraints? If we ask this question we are more open to unusual
alternatives than if we assume that there is no way we can assist novice
Web users when they need it. I am in favor of training student assistants
for this purpose, but others may not be. Still, there are creative
solutions available if we are open to new possibilities.

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_/  Dr. Diane Nahl, Assistant Professor                  _/   From now  _/
_/  School of Library and Information Studies            _/   on we     _/
_/  University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822             _/   are all   _/
_/  http://www2.hawaii.edu/slis/nahl/nahl.html           _/   lifelong  _/
_/  voicemail: 808-956-5809   FAX: 808-956-5835          _/   novices.  _/
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