ILife, MyLife, URLife
I was too slow on the draw, or too out of the loop (or fill in any cliché that seems appropriate), when it comes to the cute name “Ilife.” Maybe I have been trapped in the PC world too long, and should make more progress toward the Apple universe. Especially in light of my recent Vista program crash explosion. But don’t get me started.
The primary reason I like “Ilife” is that this word is the perfect culmination of all previus “i” phrases and products previously dominated by the letter “e.”
The phrase also signifies that we are on the cusp of living in a completely digital world.
Technological advances have certainly enabled both librarians and library users easier access to a broader range of resources from the comfort of our barcoloungers. And its a good thing we have such comfy chairs to sit in because the breadth and depth of information resources and entertainment available means it can take more time to find and use all the stuff thats out there. Sometimes the research process is easy and fast. Sometimes the procerss takes longer than you think it should because of the pressure of checking each and every source because being thorough means examining everything. And sometimes searching for information is just an endless stream of distractions and fluff that sucks out all the air from the room. (For those of you who went to see WALL-E, I recognize that this barcolounger image can be downright scary. I started this blog posting pre-movie release. Yikes. If you have not seen the latest PIXAR movie, then ignore this reference and read on.)
In this age of information overabundance, it means that I have to choose. What do I pay attention to? What do I have time to read and process? How can I learn to be more efficient with my search and retrieval skills? More than ever, choosing between the urgent, entertaining, and the truly important is a discipline more important than ever for me to possess in order to remain sane.
If you’ll excuse me, I need to text a friend on my smartphone, drink more coffee, check the weather report, search for new class schedules in two different places, change the music shuffle, and research a new subject discipline now. And that’s just for starters.