Sources of Inspiration

I don’t know if any of you are PUBLIBers (if your not count your blessings, if you are I say head for the hills) but hidden inbetween all the bickering and name calling (yes these are “professionals”) someone had asked if there was a program similar to word that could be edited by multiple people and yet not leave multiple copies. I immediately thought of Google Docs. Yes now I am getting to the point.

Another librarian pointed to a website called Mashable that looks like its a news site for all things social networking. The site looks pretty interesting. ANYWAY, there was an article about different online word processors available. There’s also an article about online spreadsheets available. Looks like people really want to give Microsoft a run for their money, and in a way that’s easily accessible to all levels of computer minded people (sorry Open Office).

Of course, even I have been getting burnt out with all these options. Yahoo, Google, Myspace, Facebook, Blogger, WordPress, Twitter… blah blah blah. I have used them all at some point. I won’t say that to the uninitiated of course, don’t want to scare them away. I have been pretty happy with Google Docs so far, although I’m sure that they will eventually suck my soul dry.

In a completely unrelated note, there was an article in the Atlantic called “Is Google Making us Stupid?” Basically (since I only skimmed the article) it was saying that due to the internet the way people are thinking has changed. People in this day and age have the attention span of a flea (my words, not theirs). Thanks to blogs, hyperlinks, texting and instant messenger, people aren’t in for the long haul.

Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman elaborated on his comment in a telephone conversation with me. His thinking, he said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.”

I think this may be true with things written online. Its my opinion that due to the very design of Internet Explorer/Firefox, articles should be meant to be skimmed. That scrolly bar on the right is there for a purpose. Some things are just meant to be that way. The same thing goes for book reviews in SLJ, Library Journal or VOYA. If you don’t have time, you look at their rating and move on. The same goes for this post (although I hope not)

A book on the other hand is different. If I like it, I suck in every word with gusto, sometimes even rereading passages. I just read a 600 page book in a couple of days. And I read every word.

I think it completely depends on the context of what you’re reading. If you’re reading something for pleasure you’re going to suck in every word. If you’re reading something from a professional standpoint, you’re going to take in what you need and move on.

At least that’s what I hope. Of course on the other hand, staring at this screen looking at the Internet for hours could really be making me into a soul sucking zombie. I guess that would be pretty cool too.

Cathy