Readings 11/27

Information Technologies in the Twentieth Century by Richard E. Rubin

Rubin gives an excellent overview of the technologies in libraries throughout the twentieth century. From his description and from experience, it is clear that change is constant and innovations in the field have been numerous. Actually this article was very helpful in better understanding some of these technologies. Rubin gives an excellent description of both the Web and the Internet and tells us the difference between the two. He goes into more detail describing the terms and acronyms that are thrown about when discussing them. In this article I also discovered why people say in different veins, whether they be comedic or political, that Al Gore invented the internet. He actually was a great proponent of it and worked hard to pass legislation supporting it.

Digital Libraries, Chap. 1, 4 by William Y. Arms

Probably the most useful part about these chapters are the fact that Arms makes the case for digital libraries and systematically lays out all the benefits that they afford us. One important one is cost. Digital libraries and the technologies associated with them are constantly becoming better and cheaper. But there are other points for making the case for digital libraries as well such as sharing information, keeping information current, and the information being readily available to the user at the time and point of need. He does not simply make the case for digital libraries and then turn a blind eye to their criticisms. In chapter 4 he realizes there are challenges such as changing formats and operating systems, interoperability, and that data can be quickly lost due to quick obsolescence of technologies. Change is constant and it is our job to navigate through all these changes without getting lost or overwhelmed.

Readings 11/20

Double Fold by Nicholson Baker

Baker as a writer of fiction makes an emotional case for saving the original documents. He brings to the table a great deal of force and sense of gravitas to this discussion. Are these newspapers all possible to save though? There are multiple factors that come into play when trying to save materials. One is space. Often libraries are strapped for space as it is. Where would all these accumulating materials be stored? Another factor is funds. Libraries need money to pay the costs of organizing, sorting, shelving and upkeep of newspaper sources. With libraries’ continuous struggle for funds, how easy will it be to get more money for something like this? A way must be found to preserve these records in a quality contextual way for a long time. The main problem here is the problem of impermanence. Everything deteriorates and changes in a continuous cycle. There is nothing that is going to be around for ever. As humans though, we take it on as our job to make our own great works persist for future generations to enjoy.

Readings 11/13

Modeling the Information Seeking of Professionals by Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvain

A comprehensive examination of three different professions sheds light on the information seeking behavior of professionals as a whole. Through an extensive examination of previous literature (Ninety sources in their bibliography), Leckie et al. conduct a sort of meta-analysis and try to find some similarities. Following their description of the literature they propose a model, a very general one at that. Every once in a while models of this nature are helpful but in most cases I don’t see the usefulness of them. This model, because of its scope is terribly general. They say themselves that there is a great deal more nuances that go into each part of it such as “roles” or “tasks,” things that need to be taken on an case by case basis. This model can be applied to any number of situations but to actually understand them, one will have to examine the individual situation in depth anyway. The model doesn’t seem as useful as they make it out to be.

The Access Principle (Chapters 1 and 6) by John Willinsky

These chapters address the idea of open access of materials amongst the scholarly community. The principle is that scholars, students and all people in the academic community should have free and equal access to these materials in order to foster an environment of collaboration. Of course this would be a great thing, and good for the academic community but there are a number of problems. Foremost of these is the publishing industry. In order to keep journals running and viable subscription fees need to be charged. We are given some examples of self-sustaining journals and databases but there are still many that charge for access. Another interesting point that Willinsky makes is his idea based on Aristotle’s quote, “All humankind by nature desires to know.” This idea Willinsky proposes is that because of this it should be a human right to know. In our constitution or the Bill of Rights there is nothing about the right to know, but perhaps it should be added. The right to know, seems as basic as life liberty or the pursuit of happiness (with out getting into too many epistemological hang ups).

Readings 11/06

Long Overdue by Public Agenda

It was surprising to see that libraries have so much potential support. People would actually prefer taxes being raised than having services or hours cut, or charging for services. One key to libraries is that they are free, making them strongholds for democracy. And like other forms of social services like food stamps or unemployment, anyone can use libraries, not simply those with a low income. Another interesting thing is that libraries are trusted and respected much more than other institutions. No one ever talks about the corruption of librarians, as opposed to police forces and governing officials. Moreover libraries are seen to use the funds they receive well. Libraries seem to be healthy institutions that will not be lost anytime soon. It is necessary for librarians though to become strongly involved in their communities and become leaders, as well as market the library and its services to the potential users out there.

The Differences Between Real and Digital Libraries by Thomas Mann

This article was written before the Google Book project came out, and Mann may have some different ideas now. Are copyright laws going to continue to exist for ever and in the same form as today? But even so other good points are made in this article. A library is a place where people can go get away from this fast paced world. A library without walls would mean that people who do not have a computer would be left out in the cold. Another point that I have realized but have never articulated is that I hate reading lengthy text on a computer screen. With books you can take them anywhere, sit in any position that makes you comfortable, and there is no eyestrain involved. It is hard to picture digital text replacing books as the preferred way of reading. When I have to read articles I always print them because I like the hard copy to refer to; I like writing in the margins and making notes of things to think about. The experience of reading would lose a lot if I did it on a computer.