I have decided to do my research project on the technological changes in libraries. I feel like this is an easier subject to research than my other ideas and that it is more directly related to the subject matter of the class. I am not one hundred percent sure what my thesis will be though, because I still have a lot more research to do over the next couple of days. I am thinking of concentrating more on academic libraries, and how new technologies like the Google Book Search may virtually make books obsolete.
I found some of this week's readings to be related to this topic. "The Library in the New Age" by Robert Darnton was especially relevant. His eight point argument for the continued relevancy of traditional libraries (ones which contain actual books)was very interesting; it raised several issues that had not occured to me previously. For example, it is likely that Google Book Search and similiar tools would miss editions of books, or even some books entirely. It would certainly be very helpful, but it would take decades before it could be thorough, if this ever happened. And of course the issues of copyright involved with more recently published books also pose a problem for this type of technology. Darnton's arguments, that libraries should continue to purchase books, certainly makes a lot of sense in this context.
On the other end of the spectrum I found a Boston Globe article on the Delicious part of the course website called "A library without the books." This article is about Cushing Academy in Boston, which has recently donated nearly all of it's books to make room for a $500,000 "learning center." Proponents of the "bookless library" see this as the way of the future, and view traditional libraries as outdated.
I am sure I will have to read many more articles on the subject before I write my paper. But the problem that I am having is not so much whether or not libraries are going to be changed by newer technologies, that much is obvious, but just how large these changes will be. Is the library of the future more like Darnton's or more like the one at Cushing Academy? Are research books clunky relics of the past? Or will they continue to be relevant as they have for the past several centuries?
I don't know, but I better do some more research and come up with a thesis. :)
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Don't forgot Buschman's article on Libraries in the modern age. He tells librarians that book librarians certainly aren't going to be obsolete anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI liked Darnton's article, but I disagreed with some of his arguments. Some of them in fact, made me more supportive of a paper less library then I had been in the past.
I love the smell of books as much as the next student, but when its put it to perspective I can acknowledge it as a worthless esoteric value. What does it offer society? Maybe somebody could do studies on how the smell relaxes us or like no other. Until then, I'm questioning this value.
I know what you mean. I also like the smell of books, but I found it a little bit ridiculous that some company is marketing something that smells like books that you attach to your computer when reading an e-book. (I don't remember exactly what it was, as I read the article a week or more ago.) I mean seriously, give me a break.
ReplyDeleteAs ridiculous as it may seem that a company would want to come up with a "book smell" so readers feel as if they are reading an actual print book when reading an e-book, it also seems to make sense.
ReplyDeleteI think that companies who are in charge of e-books know that they are at a great disadvantage in the market place when competing with traditional books because that is what people know and what people have come to love. It seems logical to me that they would try to replicate the experience so as to come as close to the original as best as they can.
I can't imagine a bookless library. that, along with the production of a "book smell" to attach to an e-book, sounds absurd. To go through all of that trouble...i really can't fathom why. What's so bad about a traditional library? Is it really that necessary to completely convert to an electronic world?
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic nonetheless...
One thing that really got me about the Cushing Academy article was the $50,000 coffee bar. At a prep school? For teenagers? If that doesn't smack of capitalism gone awry, then we've hit bottom as a society. The article doesn't say, but I would bet those drinks won't be for free. I can see the staff meeting now. "How can we make more money and disguise it as the advancement of progress? Hmmmm. Here's an idea...".
ReplyDeleteThere are books on the shelves in my home office that I have not picked up in two years or maybe more. There are books in my basement that are in boxes and have not seen the light of day for a decade. As this class has progressed, I have become more accepting of other media in which books can be attained. I think it was Troy who made the observation in the discussion forum that it is the content that we seek within books rather than context. I think a lot of us are traditionalists when it comes to books but as sad as it sounds, there will be less and less of our types around.
ReplyDelete2-part comment:
ReplyDelete1) Books will be hard to get rid of. Yes, I agree with Troy, that it is the content we seek, however, the medium can have much to do in conveying that context.
2)What about reading rooms becoming more like live forums and discussion boards? Information is gathered at such a speedy rate that analyses and discussions pop up almost as soon as the info is given out.