Technology and the Librarian

I don't consider myself particularly technologically literate any more. Maybe when compared to most people, but not compared to a lot of people my age - or at least people younger than I am. I'd say it's partially because I'm not a computer science major, partially because I don't have a lot of time, and partially because whenever anything breaks or I need to know how to do something, I just ask Andy. He's quite handy. In any case, I know that I am more technologically minded than many of the people at work, which I know because they often will yell, "Janet!" to have me come and fix things or show them what to do. I recently attended a workshop about technology in libraries, since I was available, but also because I am in charge of technology for our department. Sadly, many people in attendance had never used a blog and didn't know what RSS is. I think they had all heard of blogs, and fortunately, no one had to explain that it was short for "weblog." While I did get a lot of new ideas for implementing technology in the workplace, I was disappointed to hear a library colleague say that she "hates technology." Really? Hate technology? Well, she doesn't have TV, so maybe she does (I would like to point out at this point that she was definitely under 30). But I felt that this was a bit of a strong statement. Remember the old days of card catalogs? While they were easy for little kids learning about library subjects, I'll never trade the keyword search for anything. I think people just need to learn to utilize technology - it will become their friend. But how to catch them up? I'm just not sure, and this is my problem (and one of my objectives for the year, as I am also in charge of helping people in the department become more familiar with technology). How do you begin? The first step, of course, is to teach people that it's almost impossible to break a computer unless you physically damage it by dropping it out of a building or something. Maybe your home computer could get a virus, but most workplace systems are so tricked out with firewalls, security, and virus scan software that they're annoying - but in any event, clicking on a few things in your document won't hurt you. Just go ahead and see what happens. Maybe I should wear a sign around the office and see what happens...