Assignment #1

In article by Clifford Lynch, he argues that current information 'literacy' of nonprofessionals is not good enough. He argues that we must rather be education in information technology, that in gaining a broader understanding of the history an underlying systems the knowledge will have a longer life span. I'm not completely convinced of his argument, for the most part it seems that people who are not computer or information professionals will not need a more detailed understanding of underlying systems, but rather how to simply operate any given program and adapt to any upgrades.

The article pertaining to the Lied Library discusses in detail the difficulties faced by a university library in an ever evolving technical environment. It offers some very helpful tips and advice for anyone who is in charge of a library such as this. Some of these include ways to deal with a community of both students and community members. They discuss ideas such as restricting the use of computers to community members at peak times, such as during midterms and finals, and restricting the programs that community members can access.
The article also discusses important issues such as dealing with computer safety and functionality. They discuss the use of Deepfreeze, a program that erases anything installed by a user when they log out, thereby preventing most viruses. They also mention that they have several backups on hand to quickly replace any malfunctioning hardware.

While reading the OCLC report from 2004, it struck me how quickly technology changes. While the report is only five years old we can already see how many of thier predictions have come true and how many have not, and most of them appear to have been correct. The article mentions the use of cell phones and smart phones several times. In this case, they seem to have been correct. The use of smart phones has become extremely popular, owing largely to the wide spread availbility of 3G networks which allow users to access the internet anywhere.
The article also mentions the idea of micropayments. It discusses the widespread use of charging small amounts for smaller pieces of something. They use the example of paying 99 cents for one song instead of $15.00 for a whole CD. It also discusses that we may be able to access small pieces of articles, but must pay for the whole thing. While this practice is still in widespread use, one thing which has been happening with more and more frequency is the use of advertising to offset costs. It seems that more content is being offered to the consumer for free, but when we access it, we are inundated with advertisements.