Do I look like I know what a Jpeg is? I just want a Picture of a gosh darn hot dog.

Hello friend,
I’m writing to you as of now from the reference desk in the shadow of my first Library instruction class. I was prepared! I had my druthers and was basking in the full responsibility of being learned enough to impart wisdom into others. I practiced with my databases, navigating and clicking, navigating and clicking, finding different ways to do similar things. I consulted my fellow librarians, asking my more experienced co workers, what the best flowstate was and what seemed a natural progression throughout my time in the lab. I even managed to ask AI to create for me a step by step process on how to explain the topic at hand, and rewrote that step by step process in my own language, making easier to understand and more genial.

Oh yeah, we’re rolling. “Lets get this show on the road” I thought to myself foolhardy with confidence that I was going catch whatever they threw at me. I was Willie Mays ready to go deep and dive into the best catch of my career.

Oh how I should have known that what would be required for this class would be recondite knowledge from the bowels of a technology for dummies book. I left my office early and made my way to reference desk, sitting ever so casually with a coffee mug of lukewarm swill (sumatra). Just then out of the corner of my eye, an almost imperceptible movement of a Professor with a swarm of students in tow like goslings imprinted and eager to learn how to cite sources.

We enter the lab and lo and behold…..
The projectors are not working. No, No, this can’t be. The ache in my chest dense as a neutron star became vast. It felt as though a gorilla pulled me into an alley and played a polka on my ribs like an accordion.

I wasn’t going to start singing the blues just yet friend. I asked again of my more experienced co workers.

They entered the lab and fiddled with the mechanism even going so far as to try the old “restart it and it will probably be fixed” trick that IT uses as their easy jab. It didn’t connect. We used an HDMI cable and tried to plug my work computer into the projector. Still nothing.

Eventually in the interest of time we decided to present the class analog style (crazy I know, how did they do this in the 70s). We worked with each student individually.

The ticket has been submitted but for now we have to wait for new tech.

So what do you do? Here we are accustomed to our technology making life easier for work, teaching, leisure, travel and various other activities. It is only when it is temperamental and wants to take a self-induced time out, that we realize the pervasive nature of technology dependence in day to day operations. I don’t know about your library but mine has a small budget. We simply can’t afford cutting edge technology but we in another sense of the word can’t afford to work with unpredictable tools and technology that are unable to complete the job with the quickness.

I can hear someone saying now, “when i was your age we had a card catalog and it was 60 by 60 cubits in the garden of eden… We didn’t have no fancy Macintoshes with colored screens.”

Easy there grandpa/ma Francis, the future is now but its not presently available.

Thinking on what librarians can do to give voice to needs in the library, how do we advocate for newer and more sound technology without squeezing the budget to where we have to order paper from Brazil? If there’s a personal finance guru out there reading who wants to put to task helping an early career librarian create a knockout proposal (one that can’t be denied– yes the librarians need VR goggles and PlayStation 5’s to read ebooks) please make yourself available at your earliest convenience.

I would imagine that skills like grant writing would become increasingly favorable in situations like these where we see a need and can use the vocabulary necessary to adequately and competently ask for help from the library overlords. (I for one love our library overlords, please don’t remodel the reference desk, T.T)

As a new librarian, there are options to skill build in this RPG we call life. Yes you can touch grass but you can also buckle down and make yourself a real asset to your organization. That’s what I want to do.

So that when the fates decided that the projectors are not going to connect, you can simply use your knowledge to get admin moving on the fix. I’m not saying its that simple but it could be a lot easier once you have know how.

anywho, first class in the books. until next time.

best,