We might disagree on resources, but I don't think that's an
interesting disagreement, nor one I am qualified to disagree with you
on!
But I'm interested in the larger idea here. As I see it, "mirroring"
is a retro dream. It stems from the assumptions of a Web 1.0 world,
that web pages are repositories of text and images, not dynamic the
applications they have increasingly become. Nor do I think think it's
a coincidence that the library interest in mirroring also reminds one
of a world of paper books yellowing in climate-controlled stacks.
But the web was never like paper, and it's getting less and less like
it. Mirroring is an attempt to catch the pixie in the bottle. But the
web grows more dynamic every day. I would guess that we could already
fit American Memory on an iPod. But could we fit Facebook,
LibraryThing, Wikipedia or Google? Absent technology to imprison human
souls, what would that even mean?
T
On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 1:09 PM, Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan_at_nd.edu> wrote:
> On Jul 29, 2008, at 11:57 AM, Tim Spalding wrote:
>
>> So, instead of linking to American Memory, mirror it locally?
>
>
> Yes, quite possibly, if your collection policy warrants that direction.
>
> As one who is not a collection developer/bibliographer but only plays one on
> mailing lists, a collection policy should/ought to touch on a number of
> things, such as but not limited to:
>
> * how many resources do you have (time,
> money, space, hardware & software, people,
> etc.)
>
> * who is your audience (students, faculty,
> people who are alive yet)
>
> * what formats of content to collect (books,
> journals, images, movies, manuscripts, etc.)
>
> * what subjects of stuff to collect (forestry,
> medicine, physics & astronomy, etc.)
>
> * what roles does your library play in
> regards to broader librarianship issues
> (collection, reference, preservation of
> the historical cord, intellectual freedom,
> etc.)
>
> * what services do you want to provide
> against your content (lend, annotate, enhance,
> compare & contrast, analyze, etc.)
>
> Depending on how a library approaches the answers to these sorts of issues,
> it might be entirely feasible to mirror American Memory, but in most
> library's policies the lack of resources will be the limiting factor.
>
> P.S. Sooner or later, it is entirely possible we will be carrying around the
> whole of American Memory on our iPods in our pockets.
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
Received on Tue Jul 29 2008 - 12:28:42 EDT