Not to raise alarms, since this is the brave new world in which we find
ourselves, but I started typing "darnton library" into the Google search
box on my toolbar and it completed it as "darnton library in the new
age" and of course returned the article at the top of the results list.
Like Caliban, I can only marvel at it.
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Karen Coyle
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 10:41 AM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Another nail in the coffin
Tim, yours is a common concern. See Darnton and others.
kc
Tim Spalding wrote:
>> 2. For the past decade, usage in academic libraries has shifted from
print resources and the system that support the discovery of such (i.e.,
library catalogs) to online subscription resources and the systems that
support their discovery (i.e., databases). There have been a *lot* of
new systems and improvements to the latter over the past decade, with
many more improvements coming down the pipe. Things are by no means
standing still.
>>
>
> I'm interested to know if you think this has its own dangers, as I do.
> The academic library of the past that held onto books and journals had
> something tangible and valuable to curate. The labored to accumulate
> collections for the benefit of their students. As this shifts to being
> a middleman for subscription products, I see two problems:
>
> 1. The internet cuts out middlemen and lowers management costs. There
> was more curation and filtering involved when there were physical
> journals. Digitization largely nixes curation costs, and filtering
> costs have migrated up the stack (ie., libraries choose packages more
> than individual offerings). The idea of library curation of
> subscriptions persists because it resembles the former situation, but
> over the long term there's no reason why the library is better at
> giving you the password to something it doesn't own or control than
> anyone else.
>
> 2. As the model shifts from ownership to rental, the library
> increasingly becomes a rent-collector, not an independent farmer. The
> library of the past could, through judicious management, accumulate
> real and lasting value-the sum total of decades of judicious
> collection development. With digitization, that value is only as
> significant as the last check to Elsevier, and the judicious
> accumulation of value for students' benefit becomes a thin
> administrative layer between what the students need and what the
> digital sellers want for it.
>
> Libraries have always been "IP-licensing centers," but digitization
> and the "data rental" thins out and brutalizes the model.
>
> That's my opinion. I'm glad to hear how I'm wrong here.
>
>
>
--
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
------------------------------------
Received on Tue May 05 2009 - 14:05:01 EDT