Re: Another nail in the coffin

From: Brian Stamper <stamper.10_at_nyob>
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 11:32:05 -0400
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
On Mon, 04 May 2009 10:18:33 -0400, Jonathan Rochkind <rochkind_at_jhu.edu>  
wrote:

> What is your point, Alex?  How can this discussion help us serve our  
> users better?
>
> Are you suggesting that all of us reading this should just quit our jobs  
> and go work somewhere other than a library now, and libraries should  
> disolve themselves?
>
> And that's useful for us to discuss here why?
> ________________________________________

Thank you, Jonathan!

I'm a library newbie, but I'm already so sick of seeing these gloom and  
doom, librarianship is dying type of posts. Why should new information  
discovery tools be viewed as being *outside* of librarianship? If this  
thing is truly useful, doesn't it *enhance* our abilities, rather than  
replace them? Doesn't the realm of librarianship *expand* to include these  
new tools and techniques, rather than shrink out of their way? If it does  
really mean a few less reference desk questions (and that 90% figure comes  
 from where now?), doesn't that just free up our time to assist in more  
difficult research?

Bring up a new tool here for discussion, fantastic. Then go on to say that  
it means obsoletion for libraries, or call it "another nail in the  
coffin", well that's just trolling for flames, in my newbie opinion.

Brian Stamper
Received on Mon May 04 2009 - 11:33:35 EDT