On 29/07/2011 01:52, Alexander Johannesen wrote:
<snip>
You need to do something big and drastic, and all you #$&^%#$*& care
about are the minutea of AACR2, the stupidity of RDA, the generally
incomprehensibly FRBR, and all the warts of MARC. At no point have you
said, hey, how about we come up with a new and crazy way to create
reliable meta data? Or how to deal with digital resources? Or what does
access mean in a digital economy? What does it mean to fund a library in
a global information market-space?
</snip>
and
<snip>
You all got library degrees. Are they relevant to what you want to do?
</snip>
Of course, I agree. The situation for libraries is truly serious and all
trends point to it getting worse. It kind of reminds me of a news clip I
saw several years ago, when a French village was being flooded. The
video showed the huge wave rolling through the village, washing away
cars and the smaller buildings but on top of one building (whose
foundations looked as if they were eroding away) was an old woman
sweeping and sweeping her patio! Obviously she was terrified, but had no
idea what to do except--sweep her patio.
Librarians have to show that they are relevant and they have to do it
soon since the economic/information environment is changing very, very
quickly. Our relevance is no longer taken as a given. In this regard, I
heard this fellow speak at a conference about "Perfecting the
Irrelevant" and his example of the Smith Corona typewriter impressed me.
Here is the story and I suggest everyone read and think about it:
http://waynehodgins.typepad.com/ontarget/files/perfecting_the_irrelevant.pdf.
To me, so much of what the current library initiatives have in mind are
different variations of this "perfecting the irrelevant." We *must*
discover what is relevant to society today and fit ourselves in, and not
to assume--or rather convince ourselves because we won't convince
anybody else--that the solution to our societal relevance is to provide
our users with the FRBR user tasks. Again, where is the evidence for
such an outrageous conclusion? I still haven't seen it, although I have
seen all kinds of evidence for other powers and abilities they want and
expect. Therefore, FRBR and RDA are fabulous examples of perfecting the
irrelevant. Even if we could wave our magic wands like Harry Potter and
somehow get WEMI to work right now, today, does anybody really,
seriously believe that it would make any substantial difference to our
patrons and they would exclaim "Yes! Yes! This is what I've always been
missing!" Why? And when we begin to consider the so-called tiny
"changes" with RDA; how they will make any difference to any of our
users, and the significant labor and costs it means for us, that image
of the old French woman furiously sweeping her patio pops into my mind
again.
Figuring out how librarians and what they make are relevant to today's
society--as I firmly believe we can do since we actually provide
services found nowhere else--will not be a simple task though, and it
will be a humbling experience, I am sure. Many of our most cherished
beliefs will be shown false I am sure, but our field will be stronger
for it. What should the library catalog do today? What should reference
services be? What does selection mean today? Asking these questions
seriously will inevitably lead to painful answers, but it is necessary.
The only way to find out a lot of this is to do as Alex says and
experiment.
But libraries are bureaucratic and it is very difficult to justify
experiments and development, because experiment and development assume
the possibility of failure. An idea may not work out and therefore "be a
waste", which is tough to justify, especially today. Of course, just as
nothing is a "100% success" nothing is a "100% failure" and all attempts
are steps along the same road. False paths are just as valuable as true
ones, so long as others know about the false path; otherwise they will
make the same mistakes.
Still, this is a very disheartening time for libraries. On the bright
side, once we do show that we are relevant and vital to our societies,
as I am sure we will, the funding will come. Of that, I have no doubt.
--
James Weinheimer weinheimer.jim.l_at_gmail.com
First Thus: http://catalogingmatters.blogspot.com/
Cooperative Cataloging Rules: http://sites.google.com/site/opencatalogingrules/
Received on Fri Jul 29 2011 - 06:12:54 EDT