An Abundance of Knowledge

The two lectures, "From Script to Print" and "Knowledge in the Age of Abundance" were interesting, but I didn't agree with all of the points that were made. Yes, we certainly live in the age of knowledge abundance, and the internet makes it faster and more accessible than ever before; but not everyone in the world is literate, and not everyone has internet access. Entire huge swaths of the world's population have neither. What happens to them?

Also, I definitely feel that young children should learn their name, address, and phone number, regardless of what electronic gadgets they may have upon them. While it may not still be a requirement to enter kindergarten, it certainly is an important life skill and a safety feature. When I was a child and we went to Disneyland, my parents wrote my name and their phone number on my arm in ink, in case I got lost. Nowadays, parents are discouraged from even putting their children's names on the outside of their school backpacks, because child predators can use that information to lure them into believing that the predator is their friend. Case in point - I was thankful that I had taught my children my contact information when my son got lost at Hong Kong Disneyland - he remembered my 10-digit Indian cell phone number, and we were safely reunited.

I did really like the statement made at the end of lecture 1:

"The librarian’s job is to facilitate access to the representations of human knowledge by learning, applying, and teaching the technology skills that networks all the representations."

I think that sums up what I wish to do with my MLIS degree.  

Teresa