Week 3, thing 7

Technology

Oh sometimes it is wonderful and sometimes it seems like a curse. I spent the past day and half doing Horizon Acquisitions training. Oh boy -- my brain was about fried by lunch time. But, then, we learned how to undo something that had been done months before and was causing problems (bib records with no items). Andy patiently undid then and they were deleted from cataloging -- what a joy! But it took a long time to undo. Why wasn't there a global undo?

That sometimes is the problem -- using technology you have to go slowly, step by step. Like following a recipe or a pattern. And things happen. Sometimes too quickly. Oh, darn, I didn't mean to push that button. Sometimes you can stop it and sometimes you can't. No, I didn't mean to print out that page. But, yes I really do mean to delete this.

One of the things I love about technology are the many ways it can connect with people. Yes, it can isolate us but it can also connect. My family lives in Australia. When I went off to college the main way I stayed in contact with them was by letters. And it was hard to fit in writing a letter every week with all the other things I had to do. Phone calls were expensive so happened only rarely. But airplans could fly much longer distance then when my family moved there so it took much less time to get back and forth.

By graduate school I got email and so did some of my family members. Since then I have kept in much better contact with my family. I exchange emails with various family members a few times a week and have a weekly phone call with my mother (phone calls are also much cheaper -- remember when it was a big deal that someone was calling long distance?).

Next I hope to get a webcam and start having video links with my family so my family can see how my kids are growing and they can see the rest of their family. These are all wonderful technological advances.

There can also be downfalls -- like the time you end up spending doing this. Or that work grinds to a halt when computers do. But I'm going to concentrate on the positive here.