Technology as a facilitator - The symbiosis between technology and user education

Autumn last year I and a colleague published a chapter in an anthology, published by National Library of Sweden, called “Technology as a facilitator” in Swedish “Teknik som facilitator”. Since we have worked together for such a long time, over 20 years, the purpose was to combine our experiences from change in technology and its effect on user education (library instructions). It was an exciting journey back in time and an interesting reflection in the rearview mirror on the symbiosis between the two.

Abstract
In the last 20 years, much has happened that has come to affect university libraries educational approach in foundation. These intense decades have included the establishment of the Internet, the transition to digital forms of publication, Google as a search engine as well as the development of a range of powerful tools for information retrieval. It has had the effect that instruction based teaching of a few available sources has been replaced by a context-driven method of teaching, where reflection and critical evaluation have become more central than the demonstration of search techniques and individual databases. The change has also meant a shift of focus from the librarian as information gatekeepers to the student as a responsible information retriever also aware of their own lifelong learning.

For fulltext in Swedish - Teknik som facilitator (please use online tools for translation)

Ulf-Göran Nilsson (left) & Daniel Gunnarsson (right)