Are you listening?

I was running errands today and had the radio tuned to NPR. Dick Gordon's The Story was on and he was interviewing this amazing couple, Scott and Tiffany Smiley. Scott is a Captain in the U.S. Army who lost his eyesight to a suicide bomber in Iraq. He has continued to serve in the military, is currently pursuing an MBA at Duke, after which he will teach at West Point, his alma mater.

Scott is not an average guy. Okay, he's extraordinary. It's a wonderful interview (I tuned in late but am listening to the whole thing as I type) and I encourage you all to listen to it at http://thestory.org/. At one point Scott was talking about how he has had not trouble keeping up in his classes and, in fact, seems to be able to get the required reading done more quickly than his classmates. Scott listens to his readings and has been able to speed them up to the point where most people wouldn't be able to comprehend the material but he can. Sort of the speed listening counterpart to speed reading. He demonstrates his technique (about forty minutes into the fifty minute interview) and I was astounded by it. Television would work but there are many more distractions with video than audio. I was struck by what he does in a way that would be impossible to appreciate simply by reading about it.

Not all librarians, but the majority, concentrate on printed content in spite of using materials in other forms on a daily basis. There is a comforting elitism about print that isn't there with radio or television, unless we're talking NPR, PBS, or the British equivalents. So now you can listen to me say the same thing I've written above and reflect on whether you respond differently.