Technology Fail

Today at my library of employment*, there was an unexplained (at least to me) power surge that killed our network. We couldn't get online, we couldn't open the "behind the scenes" catalog system, we couldn't open the OPAC. This happened at about 8:58. We open at 9:00.

People were not happy.

Patrons were unhappy because they couldn't use the internet or figure out where a book was in the non-fiction stacks. Staff was not happy because we couldn't get any work done or provide many of our services to our patrons. Everyone was unhappy because it was pouring rain out and there was no internet to distract them from the gloom (or tell us how long it would be pouring. Answer: all freaking day.)

Anyways, this was a huge technology fail. The nets didn't get back up til a little after noon. Lots of things got pushed back. Lots of people didn't get the computer time they needed. It was a really annoying problem.

One man came up to the desk and asked my colleague if the old card catalog was still around. When we told him we no longer had the old card catalog, his face fell. It made me wish that the non-fiction collection was easier to browse (but more on that later...)

I'm not saying we should keep card catalogs for the few times the OPAC is unavailable. I'm not. But, it was a day when we had to do without technology, pretty much all together, for about 3 hours. It was a tough 3 hours. It reinforced, however, that the modern library is not just a book depository, but a hub for the internet and electronic resources. Take those away from us and the library becomes much less relevant for a large segment of the population.

One good thing: I managed to remember what Dewey section education stuff is in and help a patron find a book on homework strategies. That was exciting.

Having technology taken away from us was hard and alerted us to just how much we need it to do our jobs. It also worries me that I am so dependent on it. There are many situations where someone could need urgent information and I have no clue where to find it without the catalog or the internet. I hope that as I become more familiar with our collection, this problem will somewhat diminish. Until then, let's hope there are no more power surges.

*Even though about 3 people read this, and they all know me in "real life" and where I work, I'm keeping that off the internet in case someone I don't know ever
finds this blog.

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