[WEB4LIB] Re:

[Rachel Singer Gordon]

Karen is of course not the first person to point out that the age
division in the survey is somewhat arbitrary, so let me explain the
reasoning here. The book, as well as other material I've seen on
"next generation librarianship," is aimed specifically at Generation
X and Y librarians, roughly equating to the under-40 age group. 

This is not intended to imply that the experiences, outlook, and
values of GenX and GenY librarians don't anywhere intersect that of
over-40 librarians, especially those of new grads for whom
librarianship may be a second or third career. I think that's where
the difficulty comes in; it's tempting to assume that any discussion
of generational differences is absolute, when of course the lines are
fuzzy & our experiences, comfort level with technology, comfort with
change, and so on overlap. As in this bigger discussion of
technological comfort levels, we can all point to individual examples
of technophobic teenagers and net-surfing great-grandmothers, but
that doesn't mean there aren't overall generational trends we can
look at. We're all shaped to some extent by the common experiences we
share with our generational cohort, and our age affects our
experiences in the profession. 

- Rachel

---- Original Message ----
From: kgs at bluehighways.com
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [WEB4LIB] Re: "Generation shifts" and technology
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 07:48:51 -0800 (PST)

>I recently saw a survey Rachel Singer Gordon had posted
>(http://www.lisjobs.com/nextgensurvey.htm ) and though I thought it
>would
>gather good information for her next book, I was surprised to see
>that the
>"generation shift" was cut across the absolute age of the
>survey-taker, with
>40 as a dividing line, rather than when the survey-taker acquired his
>or her
>library degree. I feel (perhaps I am deluded) that my MLS graduation
>year
>has a lot more to do with my comfort level with technology than my
>years on
>this planet. The school itself had no small influence in that area
>either.
>In 1992, it was very adventuresome for librarians to be dialing into
>a
>bulletin board, playing with FTP, etc., and the school even offered a
>class
>in Pascal Programming for Librarians. But I still feel I have more in
>common
>with anyone who graduated after 1990 than I do with other librarians
>my age.
>
>Karen G. Schneider
>kgs at bluehighways.com

---
Rachel Singer Gordon / rsinger at linc.lib.il.us
http://www.franklinparklibrary.org
http://www.lisjobs.com
---