by MoodyBlue » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:48 pm
Hi David
You were surprised at the falling apart of Kodak, I was there when the spiral downwards began. They knew digital was coming because they invented it. But they were afraid of destroying their own market with digital and so they tried to get into other markets, buying companies and failing at them. Or perhaps they purchased failing companies hoping to revive them.
During all of this mayhem, I looked around the Kodak warehouse in Brampton looking to see what Kodak had there that will not be affected by digital. I decided right then it was time to start looking for another way to make a living.
So I left Kodak to go back to school to obtain the library technician diploma. Yeah that is the ticket, we will always have libraries. I am about five years into my new career when I attended a seminar demonstrating a new thing called Mosaic, a graphical web browser for the Internet. My imagination went into overdrive, wow!! the things we can do with this....
OH SHIT! All of a sudden I got this sinking feeling, the same one I had a few years ago in the Kodak warehouse and I knew that this new technology was going to change everything. Including and especially libraries.
Many of the tasks I was trained to do at the Sheridan College Library Techniques Program are not done any more. Funny thing is, I got my first library technician job because I knew about electronic bulletin boards and even though it was still the days of DOS and 2400 baud modems, I was given the task to build an electronic library. There is a story within a story about that and it is best told over a beer or two, three, four.
We were right David, about the Internet changing everything. I am so glad that I was curious about electronic bulletin boards, because that changed my life, and Mary's life in ways we could not imagine.
And you are right, when you tell us to stay curious. Good advice.
Cheers
John