On Sep 28, 2011, at 3:39 PM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
> On Sep 28, 2011, at 3:35 PM, James Weinheimer wrote:
>
>> Changes are taking place at a bewildering pace now. How can libraries
>> fit in, or even keep up?
>
> We can keep up as long as we -- the library profession -- understands that it is not about books (or even ebooks), but instead about the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of the stuff in the books -- data, information, knowledge, and ideas.
And a lot of it's not in books (or journals, or other bibliographic materials), and never will be.
... but it still needs to be collected, cataloged, preserved, etc.
All of the skills of a librarian apply, it's just on something other than books.
As for the library as an organization, you still need a place to store the collected stuff. (and for the stuff I deal with, I still feel I'm closer to a librarian than an archivist, so I can't say that place is an archive, even if that's what most people call us)
-Joe
Received on Wed Sep 28 2011 - 16:02:49 EDT