I love technology, as you are probably well aware if you know me or have read any of the other of my blog entries. But sometimes even I am not impressed by it when it doesn’t work properly.

Take tonight for example. I am sitting down to blog - something I haven’t done in a month for a multitude of reasons. First problem - I upgraded my browser and lost my automatic sign-ins that I had fixed in the old browser. That’s OK, just login in and save the details for next time. Second problem, I can’t remember my password, which then extends to not even being sure of my login. Whoops!

Blogger is great on the second problem, both parts of it, in that it has password recovery procedures to get you back in and will even help if you can’t remember your login. So I try all the alternatives and await the one email which will inform me which of the guessed logins is the correct one. And I wait, and I wait, and I wait. In the meantime, my virus checker keeps starting up, to check an email which never seems to arrive and because it doesn’t arrive, neither does my Blogger login or password.

Finally, after a lot of mucking about, the virus checker starting email is sorted out, I get the one email I need with my real login (which I hadn’t guessed) and I’m off and running. Or so I thought. Then for some reason, maybe its the virus checking another dodgy email, I can’t get an edit page up to commence this blog entry. It took me 3 stops and reloads to finally get here.

Now I know that some of these problems were my fault - like forgetting my logins and not recording them somewhere just in case - a lesson in point of not trusting the technology too much I guess. But I am not the only one to blame. Another is people who send you vastly oversized graphics files at Christmas (if you are one such person, please think of the person at the receiving end, who although you think they may enjoy the content of your email gift, may not have the connection to be able to enjoy it before July 2006!). Then I will add our ISP who we will be leaving shortly due to inconsistent and unprofessional service with our broadband connection - such as it is at times. I could probably come up with some more, but those are the obvious ones.

But enough whining. Christmas is nearly upon us and there is not enough satisfaction to be gained from blaming a machine. However, even after this short level of IT frustration, I know that my devotion to it will be renewed in the morning, regardless of tonight’s occurrences. Kind of like my own personal reset button!

The very sobering thought in all this is that even though I will reset, what about our patrons who use the technology, but aren’t as immersed or as forgiving of it when things don’t go right. Or who don’t understand why things go wrong and don’t know what to do about it. Many of our library users are like that. That is who I have to keep in mind with all the potentialities available to us in the years ahead. Thus endeth the lessons…… :)

I was planning on talking about the future trends I have been reading about in this entry, but its getting too late now so I will get to that next time. In the meantime, to those who have dropped in for a quick read, thanks for spending some time with me here. I hope I have contributed something positive for you. If not, stick around and I’ll see what I can do in 2006. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.