Comments on: Reflections on the Readex Digital Institute

By: Roy Tennant

Roy Tennant — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:14:11 +0000

Phew! I was worried there for a bit.

By: lauren

lauren — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:14:36 +0000

Thanks, Meredith, for your comments on user generated content. I am totally with you on your point that the view of the work has historical relevance as the work itself does. I have a growing interest in user generated content, and I think this is one of the many excellent points that can be made on behalf of providing patrons with the opportunity to create or add their own content. I’m glad your talk went well!

By: Meredith Farkas

Meredith Farkas — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:35:12 +0000

Hey Mark, I totally agree that ageism goes both ways. The idea that people under 40 are the only ones who can really implement these emerging technologies (or who are open to them) is absurd. There are people in this profession who have been “2.0″ for decades before the term existed. I guess every generation tends to thinks they invented change and that everything was stagnant before they got there. I’m just glad to see that things are opening up more… that we can really be judged by the things that matter (our ideas, what we’ve done, etc), not the surface stuff that doesn’t (age, position, gender, etc.).

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:19:00 +0000

These small conferences are, in my experience, wonderful! I have been to 2 now. One had between 100-120 people, depending on the day, with most of us staying on site and eating 3 meals a day together at tables of 6. This led to constant regroupings of persons which was absolutely wonderful! The 2nd had about 40 folks and was in Toronto (which was wonderful) but was not as intimate as we stayed all over and scattered to the winds for meals. But it was still very intimate during the conference sessions proper.

As for your newest crush, I may have to join you based on the closing paragraph on this post (http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/10/old_media_staff.html):

It’s also worth pointing out that while youth may pre-dispose toward fresh outlooks, I know plenty of older hands whose experiences have inexorably driven them toward openness, critique, and change; however, unless they are lucky enough to be seen as vectors of change, they are likely to be more frustratingly trapped by ageism than the young can ever yet imagine. They are as much a part of the brain drain as the flight of the young.

The situation isn’t as bad as it was a year or so ago when Leslie Burger announced her leadership program that (at first) directly correlated new librarian with 35 and under. I don’t hold her entirely responsible as that was the definite tenor of most conversations regarding new librarians both online and off-line. But that view is and has been for a historically good while wrong.

So mad props to Peter! And while all of us new librarians are cleaning up some of the issues of transparency, change, and other important issues, perhaps we can work on the ageism that is prevalent in our profession. And, yes, I am quite aware that it works both ways! But as I wrote several times on my blog in the past, I am an ally in this one.

Glad you had an energizing conference, Meredith! You certainly deserved it.