Bravo, Dorothea!

One of the most common things I hear myself saying to the library staff I train is: “Play with it. You can’t break anything!!

But I know that a lot of them are reluctant, or downright terrified of the idea of just jumping in and trying things out.

Read her full post about the “training wheels culture” and cataloging… I think it will ring true with many of the frustrations felt by many of us who find ourselves doing training for library staff. And she pulls no punches in venting these frustrations.

Librarians are a timorous breed, fearful of ignorance and failure. We believe knowledge is power, which taken to an unhealthy extreme can mean that we do not do anything until we think we understand everything. We do not learn by doing, because learning by doing invariably means failure. So a librarian just won’t sit down with AACR2, Connexions, and the AUTOCAT mailing-list archive and work out how to catalogue a novel item. Nor she won’t sit down at the computer and beat software with rocks until it works.

She’ll sit passively, hands in lap, and ask for training, feeling guilty the whole time for displaying ignorance.

And

What they need is to kick off the training wheels, honestly. Their locus of control vis-a-vis technology needs to move a long way inward. There is nothing more frustrating than dealing with fear-based apathy. I don’t mind intelligent skepticism; I’ll prove a given tool’s worth or I’ll abandon it. I don’t mind dealing with genuine problems. They happen.

I do mind, quite a lot, having to stand over a grown professional’s shoulder teaching her to use a set of essentially self-explanatory web forms because she cannot be bothered to learn by doing. And I do this a lot.

My husband and I picked up a new wii game last week. Did we:

A. Sit down with the manual and try to memorize all of the controller movements and their proper applications

B. Call Best Buy and ask that a member of their “Geek Squad” swing by the house to thoroughly train us in how to use the game

C. Refuse to play the game because it was unfamiliar to us

D. Pop the disc into the slot and start shooting away at bad guys until we figured it out

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I think a lot of librarians could learn a lot from playing more video games.

 

Tags: ,


View blog reactions

3 Responses to “Taking off the Training Wheels”

  1. Ryan says:

    This is great on many levels. Thank you. :)

  2. Should we take off those training-wheels? | Information Wants To Be Free says:

    […] posts on the “training-wheels culture” from Dorothea Salo, Nicole Engard, and Emily Clasper. As I’ve been doing a lot of teaching — both online and in-person workshops — […]

  3. take off the training wheels, but lend a hand « Attempting Elegance says:

    […] take off the training wheels, but lend a hand 9 10 2007 Amen to this from Emily Clasper: […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment. Login »

Creative Commons License generic acomplia purchase cialis overnight delivery cheap acomplia online buy generic clomid buy cialis low price viagra without prescription where to buy cialis lowest price levitra where to buy propecia cheap cialis from canada lasix no prescription viagra without rx cheap accutane tablets viagra online without prescription viagra no rx buying cialis online zithromax viagra in uk free cialis cialis us where to buy acomplia find cialis online buy viagra lowest price accutane prescription buy cheap accutane online cialis buy buy generic cialis online acomplia order propecia online lowest price synthroid synthroid without a prescription synthroid online buy propecia online cheap levitra online where to buy levitra cialis online review synthroid prices cialis generic cialis buy drug buy viagra on line viagra pharmacy cialis for order price of levitra zithromax online where to buy synthroid soma generic generic clomid propecia online stores viagra cheap drug cheap generic soma cialis cheap zithromax online cheap order accutane online purchase zithromax online purchase viagra online buy cheap clomid cheap generic propecia zithromax pharmacy online pharmacy cialis cheapest acomplia cost of cialis no prescription viagra free viagra purchase lasix online cialis from india viagra from india order discount cialis soma online stores find no rx cialis cialis no rx required find viagra without prescription approved cialis pharmacy lasix discount