[WEB4LIB] Re:

K.G. Schneider kgs at bluehighways.com
Thu Jan 6 15:18:58 EST 2005


> 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. 

That was more my point; I am not sure that age of the respondent is as
significant in terms of identifying generations. By building two surveys
around an age-based assumption, to some extent you lost the opportunity to
tease out what the significant generational lines really are--age, date of
MLS, previous career experience, length of time on Internet, etc. 

Regarding Wikipedia being fascinating et al., what I find most fascinating
is that for almost thirty years we have been developing social software with
the same pernicious limitations because the software developers have to
learn the same lessons over and over again. Sanger (finally I get that
right...) was making that point, as was Clay Shirky in the article I cited.
I'm also not so sure that for Wikipedia per se the barn door can now be
closed. But it certainly could with a future, similar application.  

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com






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