Soma this scares me! Wk 6 #14,15

Onward, ever onward into a "Brave New World" where books are obsolete and all our friends are virtual.

Using Technoroti to look at the blogposts that are out there, makes me so sad. All these millions of young people looking for the meaning of life, posting their khaki lives of heartache. They seem so hopeless, it makes me ask; Has Social Networking become the Soma of the 21st century? Is the internet way of life good for mental health? Is there some sort of virtual psychiatrist out there looking for virtual patients? They could make a virtual fortune!

In looking over the Web 2.0 perspectives provided I was disconcerted. Rick Anderson's view that a hard print collection is an "Iceberg", makes me glad my principal doesn't get that newsletter. I am trying to get money to rebuild the existing collection into something useful. Junior High students need to connect with print materials, not just sit around with warm thighs from their laptop.
I like to think of the computer/internet/social network as a tool, not the end product, just one more avenue to personal knowledge. Michaels Stephens' view of the "Librarian is Human" presupposes that we never were. Yet I support his ideas on technolust, since so many of our dollars go toward technology for technologies sake. Ultimately, I liked Wendy Schultz's Library 4.0 philosophy the best, mocha, a book and a pleasant place to sit and muse.

When I was traveling through my own adolescent trials, I found comfort in sitting in the library, reading, listening to music, & hiding in the stacks. I found lifelong friends in the books I read. Lloyd Alexander, L. Frank Baum, and Joan Aiken offered escapist lit where I could lose myself, forget my mother, boyfriend or the latest clique slight I had suffered. (I think I must have been trying to read in alphabetical order.) I thank those nameless librarian women who worked with me, and aspire to be them. I sincerely hope that in the search for the perfect piece of information, or the perfect techy way to connect with patrons, we never forget that these students we work with are living, breathing, flesh and blood people who may be hurting and can be helped by just listening, by a touch on the shoulder, by leading them to the perfect book.