Well, except that libraries also have the role of preservation as well
as access. That's why the LOCKSS project is an important one,
honestly.
I don't think every library needs to mirror everything, but that's why
LOCKSS wasn't designed to do that. If we distribute the load, then it
becomes a whole lot easier.
The problem, of course, is how do you advertise to the world that some
NEA white paper, obscure boutique Indonesian e-journal or DOE
technical report that disappears from the web at large is available
via LOCKSS?
-Ross.
On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 1:59 PM, Tim Spalding <tim_at_librarything.com> wrote:
> 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 - 12:46:53 EDT