This past summer I compiled and edited the BYU Telephone Directory. When I first started thinking about this job, I wondered if a printed directory would still be relevant. For example, my uncle teaches at BYU Idaho and he said that they went to an online version of the directory years ago and that there is no printed directory.
In a meeting I attended with liaisons from all over campus we discussed the issue of having an online directory verses a printed directory and I was surprised when there was an overwhelming amount of support for the printed directory. The reasons given were that it was faster, they could take notes, that it's the way they'd been doing it for years, etc...
In the same meeting there was discussion about a forthcoming app that would put the directory on anyone's smart phone, and all they had to do was to click on the name of the department and it would dial the department.
It was a little bit of dichotomy being there to discuss the printed directory while seeing an app that does the same thing as a directory. It helped me realize that while our culture is turning more and more digital, there are still a lot of people that haven't caught up with the digital age (which is not a bad thing). I feel that as our culture progresses more and more digital, we need to make sure that we don't leave people behind.
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