Emerson is taking the week off since I spent the weekend shoveling snow and working on school stuff. And speaking of school, class is unofficially over. We’ve completed ten weeks of discussion and this week all I have to focus on is finishing my grant which has turned out to be a lot more involved than I expected. It would probably be easier if I actually worked at a library, the demographic information would be readily available. But I’ve had to trawl through annual reports and all kinds of other documents just to get the basics down about my library. For the most part, that is all done, now I can work on actually describing why I want money.
I thought I’d tell you a little about last week’s discussion about the future of libraries and librarianship. Class discussion centered around having to know and keep up with technology, being flexible and creative, that kind of thing. Of course we all agreed libraries weren’t going away, we are all studying to be librarians. If we thought libraries were on the way out, none of us would be getting an MLIS degree.
The reading for the week was what was most interesting. Two rather long articles were about the shortcomings of technology and why libraries should really be all about books. It warmed my heart it did. One of them was quite dire too:
If librarians and others persist in seeing the advent of electronic documents and resources as the Second Coming of Gutenberg and if we continue to behave as if we are in an exceptional and transformational time without basing that belief and those actions on a clear-headed examination of reality, we could provoke an unnecessary cataclysm.¹
The author, Michael Gorman, goes on to say that a universal virtual library is as far away as intergalactic flight. The problems are legion and range from preservation of electronic formats and how expensive they are to continually update, to the problems with search engines and the vulnerability of interconnected networks.
The second article wasn’t quite as doom and gloom. Thomas Mann (his name made me giggle) acknowledged that technology was part of libraries and should be, but if research institutions want to remain vital, it will be through their book collections. Mann took on the railroad analogy that is popular in the library world. The analogy goes like this. Railroads got into trouble because they assumed they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business. If libraries want to survive, they have to realize they are in the information business, not the book business. Mann called this a “damaging and misguided way of looking at things.”²
Mann did his research on the railroads and goes into detail about what really happened and why the railroad analogy is a bunch of historical hooey. He then goes on to explain the advantages of paper books over electronic books, among them it is impossible to read a full-length book on a computer screen without getting a headache. Comprehension is also better with paper books. And printed books are a whole heck of a lot easier to preserve than electronic books–you don’t have to worry about a printed book’s format making it unreadable to future generations. And copyright issues; copyright is trending in the direction of being very strict on electronic resources. Mann insists that electronic resources should supplement books, not the other way around.
These articles were very cheering to me. The flood of technology into libraries seems to be unstoppable, but Mann and Gorman prove that there are people out there (Mann is the Reading Room Reference Librarian and the Library of Congress, or he was when he wrote the article) who are speaking out and making sure we don’t forget about the books.
¹Gorman, M. (2003). Challenges of the future. In The Enduring Library: Technology, Tradition, and the Quest for Balance. Chicago, ALA, 95-109
² Mann, T. (2001). The importance of books, free access, and libraries as places—And the dangerous inadequacy of the information science paradigm. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 27(4), 268-281.
Hurray! Hurray! I love this! This is exactly what I want to hear. Electronic resources are great, and very useful, but they are not ‘the answer’ as there isn’t a problem in the first place. I find this very cheering reading on a grey, grey morning. And that name Thomas Mann – How could the parents do it? What a burden to put on a child! Like being called Marilyn Monroe or James Carter.
Libraries are about books – how refreshing. I am so depressed by the drive towards libraries as “information centres” with fewer and fewer books. I’m all for electronic resources in addition to books, but I don’t believe we’ll raise a new generation of enthusiastic readers if all they read is on a screen. Oh dear, I’m drifting off into a reverie about the tactile qualities of books…
It is nice to hear of folks fighting for libraries armed with more than just their nostalgic romantic notions. Physical books and libraries are very much a central part of society. Thank you for citing the sources too! I’m tempted to send you a webcam and a monetary bribe for your instructor, so they’d let you set it up, so we could all listen in. Your courses sound very interesting.
Gorman’s concern about vulnerability of interconnected networks sounds a bit funny. If the information in library books is accessible for free, then why should we be worried about someone seeing the content in electronic form? Copyright has entered a peculiar phase: nobody minds if we check-out a book, but checking out an e-book is another story.
When I was in elementary school in the early 70s we were already referring to our library as a Learning Resource Center, so I am not as afraid of the library as an information source idea. I do still love to feel the pulp under my fingers, but we should not fear the e-book as a tool.
The issues of optical strain are interesting. I certainly have done the equivalent of reading a feature length novel on the computer when doing research or programming. I had a job that entailed about 160 hours of computer time every two weeks. Good lighting and LCD screens have helped, but they’ll never beat good lighting and a nicely typeset page of parchment.
I have confidence that whatever changes in technology and information distribution work their way into our library systems, you and your MLIS colleagues will be prepared to handle it.
Interesting! It’s cool to hear these arguments about how important books are, and I like the idea electronic sources as supplements to books, not as replacements. Books have so many qualities digital sources don’t, and I hope people can keep that in mind!
I read a several “librarian blogs,” as well as “book blogs” by librarians like Jill and Maggie. The librarian blogs have both interested and puzzled me because so few of them post about reading. The posts are usually technology related. My, admittedly dated opinion, is that librarians should read. Books. Occasionally. Of course, many of them do–witness Jill and Maggie!
Litlove, so glad to have something cheering for you. I was so happy to read the articles especially since we’ve spent so much time in class talking about electronic resources. I’m hoping there is a good story behind why Mr. Mann’s parents decided to name him Thomas. Of course I will never know, but I am having fun imagining different scenarios.
GeraniumCat, I agree that we will not foster enthusiastic readers with computer screens. One of the authors even insisted that it’s a fallacy to say kids raised with technology will have no issues reading books on computers.
Trav, glad to cite the sources. I hope they send everyone to the library since they aren’t available online. And save yourself the effort of sending me a webcam, the class is all online which makes it even more important for the class to talk about books in libraries.
Bikkuri, Gorman’s concern over vulnerability is in regard to a library’s centralized network that hosts all the digital material. He is worried about hackers and viruses making the contents of an all digital library worthless. As for copyright, books being checked-out from libraries falls under the “fair use” part of US copyright law. It also includes the right to do with a book what you want once you purchase it including selling it to a secondhand shop or lending it to a friend. Your confidence is us future librarians is heartening.
Dorothy, I am relieved we got to discuss books in class. I was worried that it would be all tech all the time. The class decided that it is up to teachers and librarians to teach people that oftentimes print is a better resource than digital. I will definitely do my part of that teaching with enthusiasm.
Jenclair, it won’t surprise you then that I read an article several months ago that talked about how librarian was the new tech job. I guess I will end up being a bit old fashioned.
Good for you, Stefanie – we need more new librarians like you. I work in a university library and we have conversations like this all the time. One of my duties is to supervise student employees who re-shelve books. Believe me – there are always a lot of books needing shelving. So books here are still getting quite a bit of use. It’s funny how some of my colleagues go on about electronic resources while all day long they pass by library carts groaning with books needing to be re-shelved. And if all the re-shelving carts are full, I hear “where are your students – aren’t they coming in?”
Bonnie, since I ultimately want to work at a university, I am glad to hear the books are still being used! Your colleagues sound like a funny bunch. I think even those who are all about digital would miss the books if they all disappeared.