On Not Screaming

As always, Seth Godin's blog post, "Willfully Ignorant vs. Aggressively Skeptical," seems timely.

In it, he describes the current debate about health care very astutely. About how we listen to the people who scream the loudest and how this is detrimental to the future of the organization because, as Godin writes, "screaming is often a tool used to balance out the lazy ignorance of someone parroting opposition to an idea that they don't understand."

Lately I have been reading a lot by and dealing with librarians that are set in their ways. The time when librarians only had to know about the books on the shelves and the card catalogs. They are mad at the new and screaming it from every bell tower.

I like what Seth says here, because I feel that is what many librarians are doing - screaming into void. However they have not taken the time to learn the technology, like figuring out the allure of Google beyond the simple students-are-lazy explanation, exploring the role blogs, twitter, etc can play in their library, or determining how the demand for video games can draw attention to the rest of your collection.

I am willing to listen to these points of view, and I often share much of their trepidation and concern; however, Godin's post reminds me that I too need to be more informed on the issues and ready to listen to all sides.

"Be skeptical, but be informed" ~ Now that is my new motto!