Nicholas Carr, high-profile author and controversial proponent of the view that the Internet, social media, and all our gadgetry - I'll use as a collective name "all the flashing and beeping" - are altering the way contemporary human brains function, was the concluding keynote speaker at the recent Special Libraries Association annual conference. As if to illustrate in person an experience contrasting today's bombardment, Mr. Carr's delivery evoked academic lectures of the past - a lectern reading of a fairly densely written speech requiring focus and attention on the part of the listener. Quietly, he outlined a vision of a world in which our capacity to reason and solve problems is diminished because our brains have been conditioned to "go with" crowd wisdom and the quick fix of whatever information happens to surface when we look at our screens. He summarized the concern that all the flashing and beeping will degrade people's ability to dig deep, to reflect, and to form well-reasoned opinions, and to his credit he ended the talk by considering how information professionals might deal with such a development. To their credit, audience members grabbed his message in some well positioned questions and comments illustrating the very value of expertise in sifting substance from shine.
Those holding views opposing Carr's argue that the internet and our gadgetry is nothing more than a reflection of ourselves - a means allowing us to splash our ideas and conversations around the world in no time whereas our reach in the past was much slower and less global when traditional publishing mechanisms and telephone calls had us waiting months, weeks, or at least days before "hearing back".
The discussion is flourishing on the internet (!) and will no doubt take off in a number of directions as various professional domains continue to apply it in their unique spaces.
Since hearing Carr speak, I have pondered "is he right?" What is the impact of the fact that typical knowledge workers today - the ones I meet in the course of working on projects, my colleagues, and I - are "interrupted" constantly by messages and meetings and spend too much time poring over busy and animated search result screens, looking for something relevant? What can info pros do for knowledge workers who are run off their feet, arrive late to meetings because they were held up in a previous one, have their PDAs go off every few minutes, and so on? (No wonder stress levels are off the chart, but that's another conversation.)
The challenges for information professionals supporting client populations bombarded with all the flashing and beeping add up: It may be difficult even to get enough of our clients' time to find out what they're up to in their work so we can diagnose needs and design services to match; our messages may be lost in the stream of other messages arriving on their screens and devices; and they may be forced to make do with what they can find quickly because the deadline is 20 minutes away.
My modest proposal in that context - built on the evolution of our roles from service providers to business partners - is simple, though likely not so simple to implement. It follows the philosophy that preparation, planning, and contextual knowledge pay off. It is unrealistic to expect knowledge workers to consult with info pros day to day, but another type of relationship is worth considering: When info pros are briefed as to a team's upcoming projects, they are in a position (1) to prepare "backgrounders" to relieve the team members of the effort associated with foundational research, and (2) to monitor for and supply highly targeted notifications of new material of potential interest. There is no point in joining the barrage our clients deal with every day … our job is to reach them just in time with just the material they need to avoid spending any more of their precious time than they must in that noisy place Carr warns against. Imagine that - equipped with the latest in technology and tools, our aim is to provide our clients a refuge from it all!
PS: Care to guess how many audience members were tweeting Nicholas Carr's talk? He rests his case.
