I wonder, though. Patrons have these ideas about libraries that are
totally out of whack with what many librarians, particularly the techy
types on here, think libraries are for. Maybe we're wrong. Maybe, when
we're not developing the digital systems of the future, we should
urging libraries to keep their "stacks," not skimp on paper books to
get those crap disposable Playaways and useless ebooks.
I also wonder what would happen if librarians stopped pushing the
"open," modern, perfeclty soulless interiors that are now standard,
and took either the beautiful, quirky and intimate or the grand and
gorgeous spaces of the past as their models. The patrons who go on and
on about the beauty of old library's reading rooms are not wrong...
Tim
On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 6:59 PM, B.G. Sloan <bgsloan2_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
Received on Mon Mar 15 2010 - 20:30:58 EDT