18 September 2006 Reading (continued)

• Chapter Five:
• There's a huge difference between a video of actions undertaken in public and the use of your DNA by your insurance company. The video is of things that other people could potentially see anyway. The DNA (and whatever medical information it contains) is invisible to everyone unless they collect it and analyze it. I don't think there's a straight corollary here. And I also think everyone has the right to health care, but that's neither here nor there.
• With regards to the news and the lack of true caring: I'm not sure that's true. Places like Bosnia get organizations like the U.N. involved and continually engaged because of media interest. The media, despite whatever their motives may be, inspire people who do exhibit true caring. Places like Rwanda may not have gotten attention, that's true, and as to why some places get a connection and others don't, I can't answer. Perhaps it's racism, or a case of the media already being in the area, or what they can gauge as audience familiarity. But I think well-covered disasters tend to get viewer support, at least. Look at the difference between the Pacific tsunami of 2004 and the earthquake in the same area about a year later. The earthquake got a lot less coverage, and thus a lot less in monetary aid.
• Chapter Six:
• I would say that the idea of a team approach is a solution that tends to be feminine. Thus, I would expect the Library and Information Science field to be hugely involbed in team-building and consensus-reaching.
• Why would girls not use computer-based tools as readily as boys? I can't think it's a matter of access (although I could be, and probably am, wrong). If anything, it's possibly a matter of choice by girls to select other activities besides those involving computers. As to whether this is a natural occurrence, or something that is pushed by society at large, I don't know (although I suspect it's mostly a societal push). But I don't think there's an official sanction on girls using technology; they just have to stand up and start using it.
• I agree with the idea of paying attention in regards to the use of email in a school. One idea that came to me was: why not send out paper and electronic copies? That way the people who want one over the other are both happy, and it can't take too much time to attach a Word or PDF file to an email sent out to a listserv.
• Chapter Seven:
• Librarians do so much for patrons! It's unbelievable, and should be made better-known to patrons, so that their opinions on the library can be accurate. This is well-demonstrated in the demise of Apple's corporate library, which occurred because the higher-ups didn't see the value in either the library or in the librarians who staffed it. That's a shame, because this chapter showed how valuable the library was to the company's workers.
• In a smaller library, I can see how one would remember the repeat customers. Does this also happen in a large library? Is it feasible for a librarian in a large library to keep a file on "frequent fliers," or to perform repeated searches for them without prompting?
• Librarians are indeed a smart guide to staff in a corporation -- I think this is so clever! People have a need for proprietary information, and the librarians can take their knowledge of what research others are doing and can put them together. This is a new aspect of librarianship to me, and I think it's fantastic!