While reading chapter 8 of Siva Vaidhyanathan's The Anarchist in the Library, "The Perfect Library," it hit me. The reason I got into librarianship in the first place. Of course it wasn't the money (ha ha) but I suppose I have just kind of lost sight of why this career path appealed to me. Vaidhyanathan ties everything up so well - the Enlightenment, terrorism, the library in Alexandria, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the commercialization of information that threatens to further widen the digital divide. I could not agree with the author more that "[p]ublic libraries are functional expressions of Enlightenment principles. We are about to let commercial interests shut them down" (124). I see it happening already at Bizzell Library. More and more, students are getting used to having access to information online. We've read in other classes about Google and Wikipedia being used as reliable sources by university students! Sometimes they even expect to be able to borrow something from another library because they can't get access to it electronically through our catalog. What happens often, though, is that our library does, in fact, hold a hard copy and just the newest issues are available online. Students and faculty as well would sometimes rather pay for our staff to locate and scan an article rather than come to the library and do it themselves. If things keep going in this direction, with more and more information available online and more and more libraries fulfilling this expectation by purchasing electronic journals and books, the library as cultural institution may well be, as Vaidhyanathan warns, on its way out. I think as future librarians and information professionals, it will be up to us to get the word out about where we want libraries to be in the future. Vaidhyanathan states that he "fear[s] we may be too late" (129); that the commercialization of information is imminent. I certainly hope he's wrong.
I will have to agree with Richard Veith that Vannevar Bush's Memex is not the Internet and is more like the desktop computer, wherein one searches only her/his own files (memories) and not the vast amount of material available to search on the Internet. The MyLifeBits Project interests me very much but I almost have to laugh at the enormity of it! I can't even seem to organize my underwear drawer, much less even think about attempting to organize everything I have ever heard or seen. I can see Veith's comparison of the Memex and the iPod/Tablet combination. Maybe something like the Treo or Blackberry with music capabilities comes closest to that today. I can see the eventual integration of all of the technologies we have now, including cell phone, tablet pc with Internet, iPod, and camera. It seems we're almost there.
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4 comments:
Hi, Shelly,
I, too, felt a kindred spirit when reading Vaidhyanathan. I felt recharged by his reminder that libraries are "functional expressions of Enlightenment principles." Looking back, Atkinson warns against us believing that libraries are "in some way more honest, or more enlightened, or purer at heart than other information intermediaries..." (2005, 179). But, isn't that why so many of us were drawn to this field? We want to uphold those values of providing information access for all, regardless of financial status. Thanks for your post.
Thanks for your comment Jennifer! Yes, you're absolutely right. Many of us presumably got into this field because of the ideals and values that libraries stand for - I know that's most of the reason I did! It's good though to read articles like Vaidhyanathan's to remind ourselves of that!
Is there a proper way to respond to a comment that was responding to my comment?
Re: your comment--I so wish that Vaidhyanathan had commented on my blog!
I guess while those of us in the field are inspired by our, well, righteousness, it's also good to read warnings like those of Atkinson. When advocating for library services, we sometimes have to be very pragmatic. Not everyone wants a library of Enlightened principles :}
I appreciate your mention of my article about the Memex, and for agreeing that a really useful Memex-like device would be a personal memory store. As I get older, I am more and more in need of one.
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