Navigating our days in a culture of distraction

Abstract

In the past decade or so, librarians' working lives have been transformed by digital communication and information technologies. This has created an environment where distraction has become a normative state. We need to be cognizant of the impacts of distraction on our effectiveness. As library professionals working with information for a multiplicity of purposes, how do we adapt in ways that respect our human limitations? What are the implications of working in a state of continual distraction, and what strategies can we use to minimize this reality? This article reviews some of our daily distractions and draws associations from the literature in cognitive psychology and neuroscience to highlight the problems and raise potential solutions.