Hi,
No sarcasm intended but I suspect that libraries will be what Google
wants them to be, especially if the proposed settlement goes through
unchanged. The old stuff will shift from one sort of stack to another
[we'll have stacks and stacks;-)]
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Alexander Johannesen
Sent: Wednesday, 7 October 2009 12:35 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Yeah, baby! What libraries are all about!
B.G. Sloan <bgsloan2_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> So libraries are all about digitizing old records? Nothing else?
Ah, a potential polemic moment! Haven't I told you that asking madmen
for their opinions is at the risk of them giving it?
<sarcasm>
So, are libraries all about digitizing old stuff? Yes, of course. What
else is there? What else could there be? I know a lot of libraries
have a cafe or some such of sorts attached, and I guess we could
stretch it to libraries being relevant to provide people with coffee
and cakes. Some have a book store (more like a gift-shop, really).
What else is there? Hmm, some borrow out books to people who still
haven't got Internet access. And yeah, they provide Internet access to
weirdoes who still haven't got an Internet-enabled gadgets. And hey,
if nothing else, that inter-library loans things is a financial
success!
</sarcasm>
Ok, let's cut the mustard. You've got tons of old stuff in your
"stacks" *snigger* which could be rather important to society at
large, could make you relevant to people with funds to actually bother
to fund you. But of course libraries "are about" more than just
digitizing old stuff from their archives. My comment with "are all
about" were about making yourself relevant to the rest of the world,
nothing less. I know this one is hard for a lot of librarians to
swallow, but the direction the information age is taking isn't
determined by what the library think it is doing nor what it wants to
do, it is driven by what they have done and what people want it to be.
You can't pussyfoot around this subject; libraries are what we - the
people, we - the academics, we - the politicians, we - the
corporations - we - who fund libraries, want them to be. If you can't
be better at that, they won't fund you to be better at all those other
things they don't care about that you do.
Regards,
Alex
--
Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic
Maps
--- http://shelter.nu/blog/
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Received on Wed Oct 07 2009 - 02:49:03 EDT