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August 27, 2008
My Father Just Taught Me How to Download a Ringtone to My Cell Phone
Around the library and even in my personal life, people think of me as kind of a techie. I think this is because I run a few blogs and buy videogames for the library and have a cell phone and yammer on about how much I love my iPod. This really only goes to show how untechie most librarians are, though, because it was only this morning that my sixty-year-old father taught me how to download a ringtone to my cell phone. “I downloaded a Godsmack song,” he said. “It’s easy.”
He told me how to do it, and it is easy, kind of, if you don’t get frustrated by hitting a lot of buttons and reading fine print and not being able to find the first two songs you were looking for. I got frustrated.
This is the story of me and a lot of technology. For instance, I’ve been wanting to transfer this here blog to Wordpress for well over a year now (Could it be two years? Yikes.), but I just can’t make myself read up on what I need to do to make that happen. One of my problems? I’ve lost the login for the server and don’t want to admit it to the server administrator, on account of he already knows enough about how I don’t know how to run a website. Sometimes I still lock the doors when I mean to roll down the windows in the car I’ve had for eight months; I don’t think I’m going to be figuring out Linux anytime soon.
This summer, Tammy and I have been canning. Technologically speaking, canning is my speed. It took me about fifteen minutes’ worth of reading to get the basics of the process a few weeks ago, and there are nice, clear step-by-step instructions we can follow that just about guarantee useful results. So far, we’ve made and canned blueberry jam, peach jam, peach fondue jam (with chocolate!), and peach rum sauce. We’re talking about moving into pickles or maybe some kind of pear jam or who knows what. It’s like playing Little House on the Prairie with the benefit of indoor plumbing and no parents telling us we can’t use the stove.
I think, for me, the major difference between downloading a ringtone and making jam is this concept of guaranteed useful results. The technological things I tend to love (my iPod, online shopping, WORD PROCESSING) are the ones that aren’t cumbersome and help me do things I want to do more easily (listen to music, shop, write). The ones I avoid are like the ringtones: they’re bound up in weird rules, they involve way too many steps and keystrokes, and, in the end, I can’t be sure I’m going to get what I want out of my time investment. The thing that fascinates me is that companies don’t have to create complicated products. In the long run, it doesn’t really take that much more time and energy to make a decent product as opposed to a crappy one, but companies keep putting out unnecessarily complicated products and people keep buying them. This problem is endemic to libraries, where our motto seems to be something like, “We’ll be happy to spend thousands on your crappy database.” I keep encouraging people to stop this practice, but it’s kind of an uphill battle in an environment where so many products are, in fact, crappy—which might be more the truth about why so many librarians resist technology. Conference speakers would have us believe it’s because we have so many Luddites in our midst, but I don’t think so. I think we have a bunch of smart, busy people who are sick of trying to figure things out that ultimately confuse patrons and make our work lives more difficult when we could be spending our time reading a book or watching a movie or talking to our friends or seeing a show or any of the million other things we want to do in the average day that don’t make our brains melt and start oozing out our ears. Ringtones aside, a fair amount of consumer-driven technology isn’t so frustrating, but library technology? Woo boy. I could write a book. Instead, though, I think I’ll make more jam.
Books mentioned:
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House on the Prairie. New York, Harper, 1953. (HC: 9780060282448, PB: 9780060885397)
Posted by adrienne at August 27, 2008 09:58 AM
Comments
Completely unrelated, but I finally emptied my library's suggestion box. I posted all the suggestions and my answers on my kids' blog:
http://parmakids.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/suggestion-box-1/
It took me FOREVER to go through all of the suggestions, but I think it was really worth it. I think. :)
Posted by: Cathy at August 27, 2008 05:41 PM
Okay, I took the time to read your post, and all I have to say is I am so happy that you're on the Emerging Technology committee! :)
Posted by: Cathy at August 27, 2008 10:08 PM
Peach fondue jam? Could I download that please? Seriously, libraries should get busy on that replicator technology.
The only "library technology" I know anything about is the ability to put a book on hold from my jammies in my cozy house. I like that very, very much.
Posted by: Sara at August 28, 2008 03:19 PM
Cathy, I particularly enjoyed "Hi peoppl." Also the Fish Feeding Club.
I am so glad I'm on ETC, too, although I have been missing the meetings for *months*. I'll be able to go to the September meeting, though, thank goodness.
Sara, I haven't figured out the peach fondue jam transfer technology, but I'll work on it.
Posted by: adrienne at August 28, 2008 08:00 PM
Pear jam you say? What a coincidence! I was just thinking about trying a batch of this fruited deliciousness myself....
http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/
You'll find it about 3/4 of the way down - after jellyfish hat(??) photo - "Lady Jane's Pear Nutmeg Jam." Mmmmm jam.
Posted by: Christine at September 1, 2008 11:18 AM
If you make it, I'll swap you a jar of the peach fondue. :)
Posted by: adrienne at September 1, 2008 02:05 PM