Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY

Libraries and technology: the human factor frustrating long minutes or seconds when the computer is down. With time, we also experience a change in our sense of speed. Speed is a psychological phenomenon. The question is whether we will reach a point beyond which human beings cannot continue to function. To complicate the matter even more, we react to speed both psychologically and physiologically. When we're in a car with someone who's driving too fast or too slow, our right leg muscle twitches as we press an imaginary brake or gas pedal - an automatic reflex of our human nature. Increased speed is one of the issues that we will have to live with in our technological future. When people resist technology and or refuse to learn to use it, it may be a way of trying to slow things down. People seem to be blessed with a natural wisdom that makes them resist what seems dangerous to their health or their sanity. When faced with more speed than we can handle, the normal reaction is to skid, slide, dig in our heels, turn backwards, grab onto anything not moving - do whatever we can to slow things down. It is a lifesaving instinct to try keep our lives in balance. The increase in the speed at which we will be expected to perform and process will affect us both psychologically and physically - and the price we will pay will be increased stress in our lives. The second attribute of technology is volume - more data, more material, more items, more details, more choices to make. In an automated society the most disturbing human factor problem has to do with the increasing volume of available information. The problem is that human beings are limited in their ability to absorb more than a limited amount of information in a given time. We know, for example, that human beings can remember only seven plus or minus two things in their short term memory. When human beings are given too much information too fast, there is no way they can absorb it, much less use it effectively. For example, business managers in all kinds of companies who have installed the newest and most efficient office automation systems are talking openly about their disappointment with their costly new operations. For example, in the past ten years, the major U.S. corporations have increased their data processing budgets by 12 percent; but productivity has risen by only two percent. The common explanation is that the technology has not lived up to its promise, and the problem would be solved if we improve the technology. But it is becoming clear that this is not the real problem. The technology has lived up to its potential; in fact, it has exceeded expectations. The real problem is that we didn't anticipate the human factor. The machines have done what they were designed to do; it's the people who haven't caught up. In fact, business and management technology seems to have had no discernible impact on decision making. Ten years ago, 90 to 95 percent of new products introduced into the marketplace failed. Today, even with an incredible increase Gondolatok a könyvtárban " 137