TY - JOUR AU - Taha, Fatima PY - 2018/03/13 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Ink vs. Bytes: The Delicate Balance I Tried to Maintain in a Library JF - Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping JA - Reflections VL - 23 IS - 3 SE - Librarians as Helping Professionals DO - UR - https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/1429 SP - 36-41 AB - <p>Librarian is a misleading term that imposes a general idea upon what those who work in libraries do on a daily basis. Amongst the numerous tasks I was assigned and completed during my two years at my library system, one of the most intriguing and, perhaps, difficult to accomplish was finding a balance between technological advantages and written, tangible works. While the internet creates an easily accessible forum within which to disseminate information, even of the scholarly field, it also creates a sometimes seemingly insurmountable gap between those familiar with technology and those who find it to be a frightening tool that they will be unable to understand or use properly. Conversely, many patrons are forgetting the magic that exists with tangible documents, especially ones such as handwritten letters. A few vignettes of my experience with a variety of patrons will, I hope, serve to shed light on the balance I tried to find between paper and electronic sources.</p> ER -