>That battle was lost. Libraries refused to give up
>their data or make a serious play for the web's
>attention. Libraries could have banded together
>and put themselves at the heart of books online-
>data and web generally. They did not.
Precisely. The battle has already been lost, since it is very unlikely
that libraries will ever catch up, for many reasons:
- The profession is far too conservative when it comes to change.
- Most librarians I have encountered (public and public school ones, at
least) have limited technology skills and little knowledge data formats
outside of MARC, and (in my experience) are not interested in taking the
time to learn more. When the first sign of change was on the horizon,
they ignored it, or made excuses for why libraries shouldn't adapt.
- Librarians are territorial about their data, and (despite things like
Interlibrary Loan) really don't play well together.
- Many librarians don't have economic incentives (that they recognize)
to take the time to learn more and push for change. The spate of
library closings in the last few years has been a wakeup call to the
profession, but now most simply fret about it, instead of actually
taking the steps necessary to adapt. They aren't proactive, and aren't
really reactive, either - they're just wringing their hands and saying
"oh me, oh my."
- Librarians tend to think of themselves as different from other
book-oriented professions (especially retail), and to view themselves as
being somewhat superior. It is considered an insult in the library
world to say that a particular library is acting like a bookstore.
However, it has been companies like Amazon, LibraryThing, Google Books,
etc. who have continued to innovate, while librarians dragged their
feet.
There are a lot of librarians who don't match the problems listed above,
of course, but they are in the minority, and face a lot of resistance.
Jesse Ephraim
Youth Services Librarian
Southlake Public Library
1400 Main St., Ste. 130
Southlake, TX 76092
Email: jephraim_at_ci.southlake.tx.us
Phone: (817) 748-8248
FAX: (817) 748-8250
www.southlakelibrary.org
uncommonly friendly service
Received on Mon Sep 29 2008 - 13:42:06 EDT