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THE END OF LIBRARIES?
Inside Higher Ed - What started as a debate over whether brick-and-mortar libraries would survive much further into the 21st century turned into an existential discussion on the definition of libraries, as a gathering of technologists pondered the evolution of one of higher education's oldest institutions.
"Let's face it: the library, as a place, is dead,"� said Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries at
Thorin prefaced her comments by saying that for the purposes of the debate she would be taking an extreme position on the fate of libraries. But her argument tapped into theories about the obsolescence of libraries - traditionally defined - that have grown along with the emergence of Web-based reference tools, e-books, digitized and born-digital content, and other technologies that some see as changing essential library functions.
"The scientists have mostly gone online with their library needs,"� Thorin said. "Cutting-edge scholars in the humanities are building new disciplines and online environments are, in effect, libraries themselves; they are diffuse, collaborative, non-hierarchical, always changing."�
Certain major research universities, she noted, have even begun moving their books to off-campus storage facilities due to space issues and a diminishing need for on-site hard copies. Libraries everywhere are eliminating pricey subscriptions to printed academic journals, often opting for less expensive digital versions.
1 Comments:
Beyond my personal sentimentality about the experience of browsing in the library, which frequently leads to inspiring searches on topics far afield of the ones that I enter the library to research:
There's no substitute for hard copies.
Beware of incremental creep in that regard.
some time ago, I heard that the New York Times hard copies archive, previously located in a large building, was gradually being converted to microfiche and other data storage technology.
Anyone who's had to contend with microfiche "copies" of old newspaper accounts soon finds themselves yearning for the actual newspaper to consult. The amount of data loss through poor copying techniques is huge, for one thing. And it's difficult to follow stories that are split between pages. Sometimes the pages turn up missing, in fact.
The USA has a Library of Congress that contains a copy of every book ever published in this country, so I'm told.
I think their mission ought to be extended to newspapers. The historical record is too important to be left to hastily copied microfiche.
I refuse to consider the traditional library obsolete.
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