“Demonstrate proficiency in identifying, using, and evaluating current and emerging information and communication technologies.“
Introduction
Technology is a key aspect of how we organize and distribute information today. It is also constantly changing. A good information professional needs to keep up to date on current technologies and evaluate their usefulness for the information needs of their users.
Current and Emerging Technologies
Some technologies being used today for information and communication include video conferencing via apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams and collaborative content creation with office and drawing apps offered by companies like Google, Microsoft and Canva. These technologies have been around for a while and I am familiar with using them to collaborate with colleagues who live in different places, or who work at the same place but are not there at the same time. They often fit seamlessly into the workplace and make it easier to communicate and organize information.
Information organizations frequently make use of collection management and digital asset management software to organize their collections. This type of database software can make it easier for employees and patrons to find digital or physical materials held by the organization. It can help the organization keep track of maintenance and other needs and make it easier to publish content online. I have training in evaluating and maintaining such systems.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is one example of an emerging technology that is being used increasingly. Generative AI can be used at this point to create written or visual content and generate descriptions of items for catalogs and databases. It can also be used to transcribe text in images. However, AI is not always accurate when describing content, and when generating new content, it can sometimes generate things that are confusing, nonsensical, or even offensive. Morgan (2024) notes that the quality of AI output depends on the data the AI is trained on, and commonly used AI engines like ChatGPT are not trained on historical data that is needed to provide contextual information on a particular information item. A human is still needed to check the work of AI, and care must be taken to ensure that AI is not creating more work for information professionals rather than meeting their intended purpose of making work easier.
Issues and Trends
There are many issues that need to be considered when adopting a new technology for the use of an information institution. Information professionals should avoid adopting a new technology simply because it is new and trendy, rather they should consider how the technology will benefit the mission of their organization and whether the benefits will be worth the cost. Horodyski emphasizes this in the context of digital asset management software decisions, but it can be applied to any technology: “technology should never lead the decision-making process … the business sets the foundation for strategy first” (Horodyski, 2016). The cost of a technology includes the monetary cost as well as the hours spent training employees and users to use the technology. It can also include work hours spent upgrading systems and troubleshooting problems.
Whether users will know how to use a new technology can depend on their age or socio-economic status. Public libraries are in a unique position to create training in new technologies to help close the “digital divide,” helping people learn to use modern technologies that will give them an advantage in education, job seeking, communicating with distant friends and family, and managing daily life. Becker (2022) notes that a Pew Research Survey shows that people think “digital literacy should be a priority for library programming.”
More and more people today are falling for misinformation on the internet (Becker, 2022). With their knowledge in finding and evaluating authentic and useful information sources, information professionals can also provide information literacy training, helping people critically evaluate the information they encounter online.
Often, software with a lower monetary cost is open source. Open-source software is software that has a freely viewable source code and is often developed by volunteers. This is in contrast to proprietary software, which is developed by a corporation and has a hidden source code. Open-source software can be free or low cost and is often highly customizable. Many information organizations make use of open-source software to manage their collections.
Data privacy and security also need to be considered by information organizations. In 2024, the Internet Archive website was hit by a series of cyberattacks, with hackers defacing the front page and stealing information on 31 million users (Bowman, 2024). Although the archival information on the site was not breached, the site was down for several days while they worked on improving their security. These types of attacks are becoming more and more common. Hackers are constantly coming up with new ways to circumvent digital security systems, and information organizations will want to make sure their online collections are protected from manipulation or destruction.
Evidence Items
Evidence item 1: Digital Asset Management System for a Local History Museum
This item of evidence is a proposal for a digital asset management (DAM) system for a local history museum. I wrote this for the course INFO 282: Digital Asset Management. The paper describes the digital assets the museum wants to organize, a metadata model for describing the assets, the search interface, workflow for inputting digital assets and metadata into the database, digital preservation requirements, licensing and copyright concerns, and an evaluation of three different vendors of DAM software and whether they can meet the needs of the museum.
This paper shows my understanding of a specific type of software useful for information organizations. It shows my understanding of the complexities and concerns of managing a large digital collection, and my ability to navigate those complexities and communicate those concerns.
Evidence Item 2: AI Tools for Genealogists (Infographic and Blog Post)
This item is an infographic I created using the Canva software and posted on my WordPress blog. The infographic blog post was an assignment for the course INFO 200: Information Communities. It lists several AI tools that can be used by genealogists to enhance their research and presentations of their findings. Note that one of the features I mentioned in the post, the AI Record Finder from MyHeritage, was discontinued in August 2024 because it “fell short of [MyHeritage’s] expectations” (Daniella, 2024).
This item shows that I know how to research the use of emerging technologies within a specific context, that I can design attractive graphics for social media, and that I know how to use WordPress, a web design and social media software.
Evidence Item 3: Presentation on a Digital Collection
My third item of evidence is a video of a slide presentation made for a group project for the course INFO 284: Digitization and Digital Preservation. My groupmates and I created the presentation using Canva. We each did a voiceover of a different segment of the presentation. I uploaded and arranged most of the graphics into a preloaded Canva template. The presentation describes how we digitized and uploaded into a ContentDM database several physical artifacts, and what we had learned in the process.
This item shows my ability to work together with a team to learn to use a new software and collaborate online with my teammates to create a presentation. It also shows my understanding of standards for digitization, database and metadata management.
Evidence Item 4: Discussion on the Open Source Movement and its Impact on Libraries
My last item of evidence is a discussion post I wrote for the course INFO 204: Information Professions. In it, I describe the meaning and origins of open source software, and how the open source philosophy integrates well with the mission of libraries. I also describe Koha, an open source software used by many libraries to manage and publish their catalogs.
This item shows that I understand some aspects of how software is developed and how software can be adapted to better fit an organizations’ needs. It also shows that I understand that the environment for creating, adapting, and improving technology is constantly changing, and that I understand some of the factors influencing those changes.
Conclusion
There is much more that can be said about technology and how it influences the information profession and people in general. The thing I think is most important to understand is that technology is a tool, not an end in itself. It is more important to recognize our goals and users and determine what technologies we can use to achieve those goals, than to adopt technology just because it is new and trending. It is important to be aware of the new technologies that exist, but I must evaluate them carefully before using them in my organization. I plan to keep up to date on existing technologies in the information sector by following publications by organizations such as ASIS&T and CMSWire.
References
Becker, B. (2022). Teaching users: Information and technology literacy instruction. In Hirsch, S. (Ed.) Information services today: An introduction (3rd ed., pp.216-228). Roman & Littlefield.
Bowman, E. (2024, October 21). Hackers steal information from 31 million internet archive users. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/20/nx-s1-5159000/internet-archive-hack-leak-wayback-machine
Daniella. (2024, October 1). Sunset notice for AI record finderTM. MyHeritage Blog. https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/07/sunset-notice-for-ai-record-finder/
Horodyski, J. (2016). Inform, transform, outperform: Digital content strategies to maximize your business for growth. Charleston, SC: Advantage Media Group.
Morgan, M. (2024). AI and Metadata: Bridging the Gap between Digital Images and Human Understanding. International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, 2024. https://doi.org/10.23106/dcmi.952471681