Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Library Conference report

I went to a very interesting opening session today. The presenter was talking about the new structure of information and how the "younger" generation is accessing and using information (by the way, did you know that IQ's have been getting higher every year since the the beginning of the 1990's, they have to keep making the tests harder to make sure that "average" stays the same).

He showed some shots of brain activity of different age people as they were looking at websites, printed text, etc... I love that kind of stuff. Brains are amazing pieces of equipment. Anyway, he talked a lot about online use, social communities and online information competition. He also talked about how libraries need to reposition themselves in the coming years so that they are not perceived as obsolete.

Interesting statistic:
1.1 billion uses of libraries in the U.S. per year
.2 billion tickets are sold to all sporting events per year
(I don't know where he got this statistic but will find and put up a reference when I locate it.)

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