Just for fun: quick, what's the longest word in English dictionaries?

It's Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis! That's pneumono-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-coniosis.

This 45 letter word means the same thing as silicosis, an occupational lung disease. Somehow, I think I'd rather just say silicosis,except when I feel the need to "wow" my audience.

Are New Librarians adequately trained?

Library administrators surveyed by D.A. Riley-Huff and  J.M. Rholes reported that LIS graduates require more training in new and relevant technologies than they are currently receiving. Similarly, only 50% of new librarians surveyed felt they were adequately trained when they entered the workplace. 

The emerging LIS workforce needs as much technological training as possible due to the increasing amount of technological services provided by libraries. As a result of this need iSchools, which provide students with stronger technical preparation, have begun to develop both in the United States and Canada.  

While iSchools are beginning to bridge the gap between the services needed in libraries and the training new professionals receive, LIS programs need to catch up and to do so considerable reform of LIS course programming will need to take place.

Riley-Huff, D.A. and Rholes, J.M. (2011). Librarians and Technology Skill Acquisition: Issues and Perspectives. Information Technologies & Libraries, 30(3), 129-140. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lih&AN=64134273&site=ehost-live

Lack of training, lack of funding

Per L.W. Braun's recent article, "Now Is the Time: E-books, Teens, and Libraries," libraries are struggling to keep up technologically. In addition to a need for further training of library staff, to keep them up to speed, actually having the moola to pay for new tech services would help.

It's hard for libraries to not appear dated to 21st century teens even under normal circumstances. These kids grew up attached to computer screens, getting the their grubby little hands on the latest tech toys as soon as they came out. Libraries can't afford to buy the latest 3DS games, let alone enough 3DS models to keep teens happy. But while libraries can push video game funding to the wayside, they can't afford to not buy e-books that will get teens reading. Teens can now read their favorite books on their phone, their mobile gaming platform, their e-readers, their netbooks and their laptops. 

To keep these teens reading, and using the library, libraries need to meet them half way and bring teens books in a medium they are comfortable with. E-books aren't a thing of the future, they're here NOW and libraries have to step up their services as a result.

Braun, L.W.  (2011) Now Is the Time: E-books, Teens, and Libraries. Young Adult Library Services, 9(4), 27-30.

Librarian meet Tech

Once upon a time librarians worked with books, and books alone. These days they deal in information. It's not enough to know how to catalog. Modern librarians employ technology in order to locate, collate and disseminate information to a diverse audience. In order to do so, they HAVE to keep up with the latest technologies out there.

Courses on computing are a must for library science programs as information literacy is intrinsically tied to computer literacy in this century. And information literacy isn't nearly as simple as it sounds. These days anyone with the ability to use Google thinks they're a wiz at finding information but are they really?

Do they know where to find the best information? Which sources are more reliable? Do they even know that as glorious as Google is (and search engines in general are), that there are hidden places it can't reach? The invisible Web, or Deep Web, could swallow the Surface Web (all the goodies that search engines can find) whole and still feel peckish. Crawling the Deep Web takes skills and they're skills everyone librarian should be working on developing.