Tuesday 20 March 2018

Information on the internet

is not necessarily accurate. We all know that. It isn't necessarily up to date either. We all know that too.
The last couple of weeks have been sheer frustration with respect to that last issue. I have, in my non-existent "spare" time, been trying to prepare some lists for next Saturday.
I am off to run an "information" stall at a one day craft fair. It wasn't quite what I intended to do. It just happened.
Yes, I know but.... it happened because I thought another group I belong to was not going to have a presence there. In fact I had been told by one of the organisers the group was not going to be there because they had not had time to organise anything. Did I want to  go and give out some information about local groups? 
Why not? It would be a day away from the computer and all things fibre are fun are they not?
Then someone else suggested to me that I might take some information for them too. They can't be there. Why not? That was only information for three groups. But then there was the possibility of advertising another major event in the state and getting people interested in something planned for next year. Oh yes, good idea.
And then, being someone who likes to do things properly, I thought it only fair to make an inquiry of the Secretary of the group I thought was not going to be there. If they were not going to be there did they want to give me some of their information? After all I could sit there and knit and talk to people at the same time couldn't I?  There was a bit of delay to the response and then she told me that they had decided to go after all. It means I can send inquiries about them back to their stall.
But it raised questions in my mind about other groups so I looked up resources. I contacted all the councils in the state because I knew that one group advertised by one council no longer met. I also knew that there are groups which do meet which are not advertised on web-sites. There are other groups too. I went searching in between answering work emails and feeding the Senior Cat and doing all the other things which need to be done. 
I emailed people to try and get up to date information. Some people responded and others didn't. Some emails bounced. There were "automatic" and "out of the office" responses. 
      "Oh yes, we haven't updated our website," someone told me.
      "That's old, I suppose we should change it," someone else told me.
And so it has gone on. 
Perhaps if nothing else comes of all my work then at least one of them might update a website.
I am not holding my breath.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I could say, "This is why you need libraries" or "This is why you need librarians." Ros