Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Bookhounds to cybersleuths

Librarians say their job as sifters and organizers of knowledge hasn't changed, but how they do that job has.

By CAROLYN PRESSLY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   Carla James-Collins has been a librarian since 1997, yet already she remembers simpler times.

    Her role has expanded from finding information for other people to teaching patrons how to use the computers available for their own searches.

    "You no longer have to know just about books and authors. ... New librarians have to be technology savvy," said James-Collins, director of the library at the Roanoke Higher Education Center. "Not only do you have to know [technology], you have to teach people how to use it."

    Librarians' responsibilities have expanded to accommodate electronic sources of information. Today's librarians are just as likely to scour a Web-based or electronic database for information as they are to thumb through a reference book.

    "The role of the traditional librarian truly has changed," James-Collins said. "When the information explosion happened, librarians were at the forefront of giving access to those who needed it and training [them]. ... Librarians were quick on the heels [of the Internet] to pave the way for others to use it."

    Designers of the Higher Education Center, which opened in fall 2000, almost took the digital and online revolution to a new extreme for Roanoke, with initial plans to make the library a virtual one with no print resources. That idea was ultimately abandoned, James-Collins said.

    Still, the Web-based services are in the greatest demand.

    "When the library first opened, days would go by and no one would come in," she said. "Free access to the Internet has really brought people back to the library."

    Pat Ensor, president-elect of the national Library and Information Technology Association, said librarians' information-finding responsibilities are heightened by the technology boom of the past decade. But the Internet has not supplanted the need for knowledgeable librarians, she said.

    "There's plenty of information, but without libraries and librarians, there would be no one whose job it was to care if the public had access to it or not, to organize it and make it accessible, and to help you find the information you need when and where you want it," she said. "That part hasn't changed, but we've certainly had to learn about lots of new tools to perform our service."

    Those tools range from electronic card catalog and book retrieval services to Microsoft Excel, a computer spreadsheet program. Librarians might create online newsletters using digitized sound clips or help teachers with multi media projects in the classroom.

    Yet many librarians are quick to point out that the essential function of sorting and retrieving information hasn't changed.

    Wlodek Zaryczny, director of the Roanoke City Public Library, said librarians are simply adapting to a new

   medium: the Internet.

    "It is just another medium for providing access to information," Zaryczny said. "This is what librarians are trained to do: organize information and provide portals of access to information. ... But does it mean librarians need more training? Sure."

    Training for librarians usually comes in the form of continuing education classes and regional library workshops, James-Collins said. Librarians must stay up-to-date on databases and Internet resources, to be able to glean information that was previously available only in print.

    "You have to have the complete package - research, reference and customer service - in addition to technology," James-Collins said. "The Internet is not going to answer every question for you."

    She said she spends much of her time showing patrons how to discriminate between quality information and unreliable information.

    "Just because you find it on the Internet doesn't make it valid or authoritative," she said.

    The majority of information still remains in printed form, but demand for electronic information services has increased tremendously. According to federal statistics, in 1994 only one in 10 library systems provided Internet access. In 2000, that increased to 95 percent.

    Locally, Internet usage continues to increase every month, said Janis Augustine, director of the Salem Public Library. As the number of Internet work stations at the Salem library increased from three in 1996 to 10 today, so has the demand for Internet help lessons. Augustine said Salem librarians have logged 18,427 hourlong sessions so far this year, compared to 20,253 half-hour sessions in 2001.

    Roanoke's libraries have also experienced heightened Internet usage and accessibility, which has bolstered Zaryczny's plan to give Roanoke's main library a technology make over.

    The city's 2001 master plan includes a new look for the downtown library, with outside reading gardens offering laptop portals and smaller, space-efficient computer monitors, Zaryczny said. He also hopes the library can partner with Roanoke-area businesses and organizations to create comprehensive databases such as medical and business resources.

    Despite the wide availability of information at people's fingertips, Zaryczny believes there is no substitute for the library.

    Zaryczny added that libraries serve another crucial role by helping to shrink the digital divide, which separates low-income people from those who can pay for access to digital information. "Folks do have access to information they would not have had before," he said.

    Dennis Frye, coordinator of library media services for Roanoke City Schools, agrees that libraries and librarians are important to students' educations.

    "Librarians have a very crucial position within the school, very central to the success of the school," Frye said. "Information access through technology is just one way [students learn]. Sometimes we put so much emphasis on technology we forget we want kids checking out books, touching them and being read to. We still want to make sure that students come first."

    Carolyn Pressly can be reached

   at 981-3393 or carolynp@roanoke.com.

   TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2002

   P A G E A 8

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