Is this some kind of red herring? Public access computers are merely (in a
way) furniture. We have them now because they are needed now. Just as we
had oodles of microfilm readers and reader printers at one point; just as we
had what amounted to copier farms; just as we used to have forests of card
catalog cabinets; just as we once had typewriters by the dozens. As soon as
the need for them diminished and/or disappeared, we divested ourselves of
them with nary a whimper. We'll do the same with public access computers
when the time comes.
Janet Swan Hill, Professor
Associate Director for Technical Services
University of Colorado Libraries, CB184
Boulder, CO 80309
janet.hill_at_colorado.edu
*****
Tradition is the handing-on of Fire, and not the worship of Ashes.
- Gustav Mahler
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Peter Schlumpf
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 11:36 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] If Academic Libraries Remove Computers, Will Anyone
Come?
That "some point in the future" may be much closer than you think -- not
some far off distant abstract point in time. I would give it a couple of
years and you will see a noticeable trend away from public access desktop
computers in libraries. Just because your labs are packed now, doesn't mean
that they will remain that way.
And the ARE a huge resource sink! In an academic library, public library or
any other context. I know this from experience. You have to buy the
things. You have to set them up. You have to maintain them. You have to
upgrade them. You have to provide user support. You have to keep them free
of viruses. Eventually you have to retire and replace them. You need
babysitters. And yes, desktop computers in academic libraries are not
immune to vandalism either. All this costs the institution money and time,
whether it is the IT department or the library doing it or both. Resources
that could be put to use elsewhere.
I have to agree with what Tim Spalding suggests: That on a greater timescale
public access computers in libraries are probably a flash-in-the-pan
phenomenon. Five years from now you may have computers designed for a
particular purpose, and they will be there, but nothing like we see today.
Peter Schlumpf
www.avantilibrarysystems.com
On 4/29/10, Walker, David <dwalker_at_calstate.edu> wrote:
>
> I don't think anyone is arguing that academic libraries will need to
> provide desktop computers indefinitely into the future, Peter.
>
> Rather, my comments -- and maybe those of others -- were aimed at your
> eagerness to get rid of them, and particularly your argument that they are
a
> "huge resource sink" for libraries, and are largely unnecessary even now
> because "almost everybody has the Internet."
>
> It doesn't bother me at all if, at some point in the future, academic
> libraries no longer provide the large number of computers we do now. But
I
> just don't see their current use as being a bad thing either. The fact
that
> our labs are packed surely suggests our students don't either.
>
>
> --Dave
>
> ==================
> David Walker
> Library Web Services Manager
> California State University
> http://xerxes.calstate.edu
>
Received on Fri Apr 30 2010 - 14:53:54 EDT