[WEB4LIB] Re: In defense of stupid users

[John W. Chapman]

This is why I would argue for a lightened emphasis on "information literacy" 
and a greater emphasis on designing more useful tools. 

Approaches to many information retrieval/access/description/sharing problems 
are currently being worked on at a greater speed than ever, by a number of 
communities inside and outside the traditional library sphere of influence.

Instead of spending a great deal of time in instructing the user on the 
proper way to use our tools, we should be leveraging the best of what the 
networked world has been building, and give our users that power and have 
them show us how it can be used. That is the way to develop savvy users.

Our role as gatekeepers is important, but to stretch the analogy, we should 
be worrying more about the quality of the gate than checking the credentials 
of each person who passes through.


On 5/5/05, K.G. Schneider <kgs at bluehighways.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> ... the user is smart in the sense that he or she brings task knowledge to
> each new tool and assesses the tool accordingly. If a new tool is 
> needlessly
> hard to use--which I believe is the point that was originally made--then 
> the
> user is going to have trouble using it. What is to bring the user back to
> that tool again? If we're counting on specialized user training, we lost
> that battle because most people don't need to go through us any more to 
> get
> to a computer and the Internet.
> 
> 

-- 
- John
University of Minnesota Libraries



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