The NY Times recently reviewed Marilyn Johnson's “This Book Is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/books/review/Kennedy-t.html
It's largely a favorable review, but there is one interesting passage:
"Johnson cheerleads for these Brave New Librarians, championing the efficiency of online searches and digitized archives. And yet, without meaning to, her book comes off as a paean to a previous age, when fact-finding meant trekking through the Dewey Decimal System. Johnson writes best when she’s meandering and browsing, in the manner of a woozy reader exploring the stacks. In her most absorbing passages, I felt as if I were back in the children’s library, scrutinizing a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia."
I guess even when folks are championing the future role of librarians in society, they tend to wax rhapsodic about the libraries of their pasts. Which may not be particulalry helpful to those of us trying to shape the library systems of the future...
Bernie Sloan
Received on Mon Mar 15 2010 - 19:00:16 EDT