It's an Endless World

So, last Thursday I went to Peter Bromberg's lecture on Information Technology in this Changing World -- this was not the actual title, but it was the one my head created after listening to it.

Due to some strange twist, I wound up being the first one there (I arrived at 5 PM) and actually got to shake hands with Mr. Bromberg while the two servers were readying the tables. He was quite a decent fellow, and even asked me to assist him with the sound for his presentation: I had to stand in the back while he checked his voice on the mic -- see, Mr. Bromberg was a rather tall gentleman who was afraid that his voice might come out faint.

After feeling awkward for a moment -- I've never actually been the very first to a meeting -- I waited in the lobby for more people to arrive. I fear I have gotten off-topic, so let me jump ahead: the food wasn't terrible, but they had no right calling the "vegen kofta" kofta at all; the presentation started finally around 7-7:30 PM.

What did I come away with?

Like I just sat through a good deal of MLIS classes in one sitting. Which was not a bad thing in the slightest.

Mr. Bromberg's cautionary tale in the beginning (Britannica yielded to Encarta, which in turn yielded to Wikipedia) was more of an overview of how the market for information, or anything for that matter, changes and that we as information professionals should try our hardest not to remain stagnant.

A lot of what he went over seemed appropos to almost all of the MLIS classes I have taken thus far. Highlights:

-The internet creating "information overload" was discussed in Human Information Behavior.
-Several Web 2.0 concepts (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, even a mention to PB Wiki) were brought up in Info Tech.
-The notion of "caring librarians who teach their patrons to kick-ass" was brought up in Reference.

And so forth.

The presenation was great though. I always enjoy a good (or bad) mix of anecdotal humor, quotations (I have the Thomas Edison quote hanging on my wall at home), and a well-timed Conan O'Brian segment.

In short, I felt that a lot of the key concepts that I have learned in other classes were repeated here, and I found that very necessary. I have an open-mind to changes, especially since this is a field prone to change, and I was open-minded to what Peter Bromber had to say. I just hope I'll be able to apply improv to my everyday life as well as he recommended.

~KO