Why should we look at the theory of technology change in our culture? I think
\nthe answer to this question can begin with a brief look at how technology has
\nchanged the way some people work. In our culture, work is a powerful force.
\nFor many people is defines to them (and to others) who they are. For others,
\nit is a necesarry evil that takes up a huge chunk of their life. In many cases,
\nwork culture has been challenged and changed by new technology before many other
\naspects of our societal culture.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
One thing I can share is some examples from a profession that has felt the wrenching
\nchanges of new technology sooner than many others. The world of librarians was
\nslowly turned upside down in the past ten years by the introduction of pervasive
\nelectronic catalogues to replace card catalogues and then the slow but sure
\ninroads of electronic indexes, serials, and texts to replace their print counterparts.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Libraries have been in existence for at least 2000 years. They have been developed
\nin the form we know them in the last 500 years and the development was most
\nintense for the past 100 years. Although computerized systems came to libraries
\nover 30 years ago, they were almost always used to track the circulation of
\nbooks and did not affect the catalogues at that time. The first automated catalogues
\nappeared about 20 years ago and were limited to the large and wealthy academic
\nlibraries for the first 10 years of their development.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Imagine a whole generation of highly trained professionals, specializing in \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n You can imagine that some of these professionals didn’t like what was happening. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n The research that has resulted in the Digital Cobbler started from the idea \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nthe operation of extremely arcane systems guided by rulebooks of over 600 pages
\nand controlled vocabularies<\/em> that run to several thousand pages. The
\nsystems they operate have taken several hundred years to develop and are meant
\nto keep track of the entire printed record of humankind. That printed record
\nitself has developed over more than two thousand years. These professionals
\nhave particular names (that replace the common names) for these items . Books
\nare monographs; Magazines and journals are serials. They can even keep track
\nof pamphlets, sound recordings, videos and something called “ephemera”.
\nNow imagine this same group of professionals discovering, in the space of about
\n10 years, that new tools have replaced almost all of the old tools that they
\nhave been operating. The library itself has not been replaced, nor have these
\nprofessionals, but all of their tools look different, act different, and often
\nrequire different skills to operate.<\/p>\n
\nI could tell you many stories from the trenches<\/a>
\nabout how these changes affected this group of people.<\/p>\n
\nthat if so many people are repelled by the change brought by new digital tech
\nthen maybe they aren’t being introduced to this new tech in the way that’s best
\nfor them. This research then taught me to look at technology differently and
\nthat, in fact, we need as many different perspectives as possible to harness
\ndigital tools that are at our disposal.<\/p>\n