Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

For many public service librarians, the challenge of Library 2.0 isn’t the technology, it’s the users. Despite the extreme 2.0 savvy attributed to the Millennials in the buzz that dominated early 2.0 reports, the media is finally catching up to what many librarians have known all along: Both the Google Generation and Digital Immigrants need some help moving from passive consumer to active participant in the read/write web. Learn how to encourage library users, as well as librarians and IT staff, to be comfortable with the participatory web and why doing so is an important first step in bringing about inclusive library services and technologies our communities can embrace and extend. Come explore why the perceived savvy may not really be there, discuss ways to find the tech-(non?)savvy reality of your library’s community, and ways around digital divides. Come prepared to be inspired to share and learn ideas librarians can implement to meet their users’ needs while helping transform them into active participants in this changing digital age.

From Internet Librarian 2009.