Learn together

At Tech Day in April, our presenter talked about helping patrons with technology. She brought up the idea that you don't need to know the answer to every technology question a patron might have--- you just need to treat the technology question like any other reference question, help the patron find the answer, and learn together. What an awesome way to approach technology questions!

Just recently, I saw this article about Colorado State Library's expanded Library Creation & Learning Centers website, a free online resource where libraries can access interactive technology and customer service training modules for staff, makerspace programming ideas, curated links to digital creation software, and more.

One of the things I ran across while browsing the site is this helpful (and super-cute) slideshow on using a Technology Reference Interview (~3-5 min). If you have a few minutes, give it a look!

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I want to let you in on a secret. Tech people don't know everything about computers either. We know lots of stuff, of course, but not EVERYTHING -- and we look stuff up all the time!

Confession: I had to look up how to close apps on a Windows 8 tablet---couldn't figure it out for the life of me! After a quick internet search and 15 seconds of reading, I am now an expert at the old swipe-down-to-close move.