Before this course, I had never referred to any sort of smart technology as a mobile information environment. I definitely think it’s clever terminology that sums up what libraries can and should provide to their patrons. As much as I feel like I am addicted to my smartphone, I tend to approach technology with nuance and hesitancy because of how quickly we can all get swept away in it.
I thoroughly believe that technology is capable of bridging the information gap in our society. We have seen in real-time the wonderful things our patrons can do with new technology in and outside the library. However, there are limitations. I recently finished reading Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World by Meredith Broussard, and she coined the term technochauvinism in her text. In short, technochauvinism is the belief that if we just had more technology available to accomplish the majority of our daily functions for us, that we would achieve some sort of a digital utopia, and all our problems would be solved. When I read the news article about Google Glass, I couldn’t help but think of her book. My dad actually obtained one of the early pairs of glasses (he worked for Google at the time), and I remember how silly he looked wearing them whenever he wore them out in public. He was able to take phone calls and browse part of the internet, but overall, the look was intrusive and uninviting. Plus, the technology didn’t work that well. In contrast, the article about the public benches that where you can obtain free WIFI and charge your phone, is a great example of how technology can be used to make our communities more equitable. The benches are passive, unintrusive, and provide a much-needed technological service on the go.
I don’t have all the answers, as to what technology will provide the right amount nuance for our patrons in the future, but I do know that as a future librarian, I want to keep a skeptical eye on it. Technology can and will continue to be integrated into our libraries. It is and will continue to be our job as librarians to manage and mediate what mobile information environments actually fulfill our library’s mission.
References:
Bennett, M. (2023, April 28). Sit and Surf | American Libraries Magazine. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2023/05/01/sit-and-surf/
Broussard, M. (2018). Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. MIT Press.
Gvora, J. (2023, April 30). Google Glass: What happened to the futuristic smart glasses? ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/google-glass-smart-glasses-what-happened-explained/
@kauthmeister so many good ideas here. I will hone in on your point about Google glass and your father. I recall sitting across from a library colleague at a conference many years ago and he had glasses on and I thought it was the most off-putting thing.
My hope is that any mobile application we create or any online web-based application we create will still be human centered and focused.