Summarize your thoughts about this program and learn about where to go from here.
It has been a long and winding road to the end of this training exercise. Since I first began this training in 2008, a number of the "things" have already become stale or obsolete. Web 2.0 is still a powerful model for collaboration, but most Web sites require regular attention and maintenance to remain relevant. At a time when library budgets are stretched, it is often a challenge for librarians to find the time to do so.
There is also a fundamental conflict, I believe, between the organic, haphazard flow of unregulated information on on the Internet on one hand, and the librarian's goal/affinity/quest for organizing and making information accessible on the other. As fluid as the Web is, with new, unvetted information surfacing by the minute and "dead links" peppering many sites that have been up for a while, it is misleading to think that finding things out there is easy. If anything, tracking down the most relevant information has become more challenging due to the Internet's growth in volume, and the proliferation of ways to reach, repackage and redistribute that data.
So where does this leave librarians, even those of us with both feet firmly planted in the 21st century?
Clearly, we have to stay on top of our game. It isn't enough to cover 23 technology topics and be done with it. Technology is ever changing, and the pace of change accelerates over time. I was accutely aware of that change when proofing and testing the links on this blog. Several were already dead. Google Docs is now called Google Drive, and Rollyo, the roll-it-into-one-search-engine tool, is completely gone, taking with it two of my customized searches.
Five years into my adventure in librarianship, many of the tools I used as an online editor have become rusty. But I continue to hone my research skills thanks to the opportunities—in fact, the professional imperative—to continue exploring and learning new technologies.