The technology that concerns us most is that related to communication - the passing of messages. John Dos Passos, "The Use of the Past," in The Ground We Stand On: Some Examples from the History of a Political Faith (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1941), 3.
WHAT AFFLICTS US ALL
People of a religious bent are inclined to think that their personal age is so bad that it may mark the end of the world. The decline of the library profession, leading to the retirement of large numbers of librarians with irreplaceable skills.
THE DIVERSITY OF LIBRARIES
However, others (perhaps most) appreciate the grandeur of the old and the efficiency and other pleasures of the new. This is the most endangered piece of human records since Gutenberg brought printing to the Western world.
OUR COLLECTIONS
THE PEOPLE WHO WORK IN LIBRARIES
The consumers (library administrators) of the product (graduates) of LIS schools are asked to buy (rent) that product without any attention being paid by the producers (LIS schools) to the needs and wants of the consumers. If necessary, we should create an association of library schools separated from "information studies" and "information science." The latter disciplines may not believe their own propaganda enough to think they can survive the divorce - but that's hardly our problem.
TECHNOLOGY IN LIBRARIES
Computers became the basis of OCLC, of many homemade circulation systems, and of the earliest proprietary library systems. It built on the very considerable achievements of the library automation movement, but did not continue that movement's commitment to the computer as a tool.
PRESERVING THE HUMAN RECORD
His lament over the penciled borders of a catalog card was Baker's funniest. He opposed (perhaps correctly) the weed policy of the San Francisco Public Library; ergo all librarians are vandals.
A LONG STORY
In the context of our area of interest, it is particularly interesting to note that at no time in history have people seen themselves as technologically primitive. This unusual time began in the middle of the fifteenth century and shows no sign of relapse or abating.
THE “INFORMATION REVOLUTION”
Does anyone think that the content of e-mail messages is superior to the content of the pen-and-ink letters of the past. The author, Peter Drucker, was of course writing in the dim distant days of the penultimate year of the last century, but note the casual assumption that there is something called an "information revolution" whose impact, true to form for such writings, has not yet can be fully felt.
A HUNDRED YEARS
The disappointments experienced by those who hold the latter point of view are because there is always a new, latest thing, and last month's latest thing must give way. No amount of cyber blue smoke and mirrors can hide the fact that the only technology we know is print on paper, especially the printed book.
TECHNOLOGY OVER THE LAST 150 YEARS
Letter writing was very common at the turn of the century (and was just one indication of a higher level of applied literacy then than now). When you think of the flourishing of learning, creativity and civilization that took place in the real Renaissance, such a statement is on the simple.
TECHNOLOGY IN LIBRARIES 100 YEARS AGO
Shelving systems (including movable systems) abounded, and the Art Metal Construction Company, maker of the reliable Fenton Steel Stacks, was a frequent library magazine advertiser. He concentrated on producing facsimiles of the book and manuscript holdings of large libraries and copying illustrations.
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. ARMS
So it's worth noting that a Google search using "William Arms" returns "about 1,350" results in unusable order, and while the good professor's home page is the first thing we find, the first ten results (which Google's powerful algorithms consider , to be most appropriate) include the coat of arms of a Prince of the British Royal Family; symbols of the city of Thunder Bay, Canada; and various poems by William Arms Fisher. Note that these searches are in the relatively orderly world of personal names and do not involve the complexities of free text searches compared to controlled topic searches or the more unusual results of the former.
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY
That doesn't make my 2001 Chevy Malibu a new technology displacing the 1950s Chevy Bel Air. That Arms' argument is supported by such weak examples is an indication of the power of conventional wisdom.
BUDGETS AND PRIORITIES
The only unifying principle is found in the library's budget: the expression of the perceived or actual desires and needs of its users. It is possible to argue that those needs and desires should not be the sole driver of the agenda.
THE LANDSCAPE TODAY
This is most evident in the case of the balance between print and digital collections, but it also applies to other media. The OCLC WorldCat contained records for books in October 2001.10 These records make up 83.87 percent of the database, but significant numbers of other material can also be found.
THE LIBRARY OF TOMORROW
Mix that with a zeitgeist that uncritically endorses the popular media's perception of libraries and the "information revolution," and you have an almost irresistible force draining money from all other areas of the library to feed the voracious appetites of " information technology". ” lobby.18. If you believe that libraries will change completely or disappear from the face of the earth, the search for such a balance must seem quixotic.
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
What we cannot overemphasize is the importance of reading to the development of the mind and the processes of education and lifelong learning. For Bloom, reading is a cultural experience of great importance to the development of the human mind and the betterment of society as a whole.
A CULTURAL DIVIDE
In response, the people of the byte will say, as they have been saying for years, that we are in a transitional phase. We must not forget that some people of the byte are not at all interested in the book and the traditions of learning, authenticity and civilization it embodies.
THE ROLE OF THE LIBRARIAN IN TRUE LITERACY
It is a fantastic world of which we only know some of the boundaries and the well-deposited parts of the interior. It is already ubiquitous in the lives of the middle and upper classes in the developed world and the wealthy in the developing world.
THE ROLE OF THE WEB AND ITS PROBLEMS
The arguments against such action include those based on the immorality of censorship and in defense of intellectual freedom, but as is the case with fighting the sex-obsessed "filters", the most compelling argument is the practical one. When it comes to using the web in libraries, as with "traditional" publications, there is a huge difference between censorship and discrimination (in the non-derogatory sense).
WHAT IS A “DOCUMENT”?
We need to come up with a definition and answer the question "what is a digital document?" before we can think of all the issues arising from the use of the web in library services. Is the web page a separate document or does the document comprise all or any lower-level pages linked to it.
Japanese American Network
That page is no more part of the Japanese American Network (itself a complex and elaborate structure) than it is a book that is cited in another book. In the case of the Japanese American Network site cited above, the site itself can be found at www.janet.org.
CATEGORIZING THE WEB
One of the most important and valuable achievements of electronic systems is the way in which archival collections have become accessible to a global audience. Jorge Luis Borges unforgettable account of the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina.
LIBRARY COLLECTIONS
Moreover, many electronic resources and documents are simply intangible analogues of tangible materials - newspapers, archives, videos, etc. Just as materials located in a library are more accessible than those located in physically distinct and remote locations, electronic resources owned and maintained by the library (CD-ROMs, some e-books, etc.) are more readily available. than distant electronic resources.
A FALSE DICHOTOMY?
Far from being a simple world divided between print and electronic materials, modern library collections are a complex mix of materials in many formats owned or subscribed by the library and materials in many formats owned by others but available through various means (interlibrary loan, access to remote databases). The complexity of the collections concept is further multiplied when one considers the vast differences in size, mission, and focus among different types of libraries.
THE END OF REAL REFERENCE SERVICE?
By gaining the respect and trust of the library user, the librarian can direct them to the best sources of information and instill a love of learning. Socializing with library users and gaining their trust strengthens the view of the library as an indispensable institution.
Another aspect of a reference service that is subject to rational analysis is the resources used to provide answers. One of the perennial issues of reference work is the classification of types of reference inquiry.
WHAT SHALL WE CATALOGUE?
ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL
Analysis of the facts shows that it was the confluence of a need (the need of national and research libraries around the world for cheaper and more up-to-date cataloging) and a resource (automation, and more specifically MARC). MARC's structure is that of the catalog card, when computer systems call for a different approach.
ISBD
It should go without saying that MARC is just a framework standard – that is, it's a way of storing and making manipulable data formulated according to content standards (cataloging codes and the like). I would not bother to point this out if it were not for the frequent references to "MARC cataloging" in writings on metadata and "simplified" cataloging.8 Of course, there is no such thing as "MARC cataloging" - MARC is simply the way in which we encode the results of the cataloging process and have little or no influence on this process.
AACR2
This state of affairs is partly due, of course, to the dominance of the English language (in its various manifestations) in the modern world. This is also due, in part, to the fact that AACR2 represents the most detailed elaboration of the author/title cataloging principles set out in the Paris Principles and based on the analysis and pioneering work of Seymour Lubetzky.12 AACR2 is also the first application of the family of ISBD standards for all library materials.
CATALOGUING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
This is not a new phenomenon – just think of the semi-hysteria in North American libraries over audiovisual materials in the 1960s and 1970s. Then as now, it was believed that audiovisual material required special and different cataloging rules, specially trained librarians and the transformation of the library into a "resource center".
AN ALTERNATIVE LIBRARY UNIVERSE
Whatever one's opinion of web pages and other electronic resources, surely we can all benefit from understanding the nature of the documents and resources that the internet makes available. If we can get to the point where we've decided which electronic records and resources to bring under bibliographic control, two key questions remain.
METADATA
In short, if one of the justifications for the invention of metadata is that it is necessary to facilitate access to electronic resources in the absence of cataloging standards, then that justification is dead wrong. In the words of the introduction to the final report of the Nordic Metadata Project:17.
THE DUBLIN CORE
This is one of the few references in this long report to the perceived need and nature of metadata as an alternative to cataloging. Metadata records are full of references to the complexity of the MARC format and catalog codes, which is always presented as a bad thing.
A CATALOGUING PYRAMID?
COOPERATIVE CATALOGUING OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
PRESERVATION
I will use each as a starting point for a discussion of the use of electronic documents and resources in today's libraries and suggest ways that libraries can respond to the problems and dilemmas we face. The economic impact of all of the above on libraries has been large (if largely unexplored) and no satisfactory response to this impact has yet been developed.
MALLEABILITY
There is a reason why plagiarism is the deadliest sin of all in the world of learning – it is the ultimate betrayal of the trust that is the vital element of scholarship. It must be resolved if electronic documents and resources are to take their full place in the burgeoning library.
SELECTIVITY
Such programs should be centered on the two vital themes: (a) to question the value of what is retrieved from cyberspace by search engines, and (b) to emphasize the value of recorded knowledge and information in print and others not - electronic formats. We should never tire of pointing out that only a small fraction of the world's recorded knowledge and information is, or ever will be, available in digital form.
EXCLUSIVITY
It is one of the white world's ways of destroying the cultures of non-European peoples, imposing an abstraction on a people's spoken relationship. Another, mentioned by Professor Rutenbeck, is the dominance of the English language in most areas of world life, not least the web.
VULNERABILITY
There are, of course, many dialects of English, but the educated speakers of each have little difficulty understanding the educated speakers of the others. There are many cases where a library's computer system has been used by hackers as a gateway to the computer systems of the wider entity (local governments, corporations, universities, etc.).
SUPERFICIALITY
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Is computer science a narrow field of study - the successor to the documentation movement of the 1940s and 1950s.
THE PRESERVATION CONUNDRUM
I think the answer lies in some innovative research—in particular, we need the enumeration and taxonomy of the web discussed in Chapter 5. I suggest that we embark on an enumeration and taxonomy of the web that aims to identify and isolate these documents. and resources worth cataloging and preserving.
CREATING AND MAINTAINING THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL WEB
There are no such things, and the sooner these notions are removed the better. Instead of the sterile discussions and failed schemes of metadata, we need studies and undisputed facts - in short, good research.
USE AND DISSEMINATION OF SCHOLARLY ARTICLES
What library researchers and librarians can do about this impending implosion of the scholarly journal industry. The serial publishing industry is one of the few that depends on the labor of unpaid, highly educated workers—authors, reviewers, and editors—who work for the love of scholarship, selfishness, tenure-tracking, and other nonmonetary rewards. .
READING IN A DIGITAL AGE
The threat to reading is not the mass illiteracy of the historical Dark Ages, but the literacy of masses lulled to sleep by infotainment and meaningless diversions. It is certainly better to be well-housed, healthy and comfortable than to be a medieval peasant, but it is an underclass soothed by electronic diversions, a vast cultural and intellectual improvement over the subjugated classes of the past.
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY AND PUBLISHING
What is the economic model for the hybrid print/electronic publishing industry of the future. What is the economic model for online distribution of audio recordings, films and other non-print works?
THE LIBRARY SERVICES GAP
How can intellectual property rights be protected in an age that is as advanced technologically as it is backward morally.
LIBRARY EDUCATION AND “CORE COMPETENCES”
That such a shameful state can exist is not entirely to blame. I think we need hard research and detailed observations, not only of what is happening in our libraries today, but also of the services that our users need and want and may or may not get.
THE AVALANCHE OF INFORMATION
The depravity that we suffer from is called "information overload" - the end result of a society where technologies have outstripped the human brain's ability to handle their importance. When one reads these books, one escapes from the depressing world of information overload to the uplifting worlds of the life of the mind and imagination.
OUR RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
Buddhist ethics and virtues are based on precepts that are remarkably similar to the Golden Rule, subordinating the requirements of the individual to the right lines of thought, speech, and action. We must and should forge our own middle ground in our "real survival" and achieve a balance in library collections and services that best serves our users and the library's mission.
OUR CODE OF ETHICS
The reader will notice the coincidence of the number of statements in the Code of Ethics and the Buddhist Eightfold Path. The Code tells us to protect the library user's privacy and his/her confidentiality.
THE COMMON GOOD
No wonder it has been difficult to integrate the full anarchism of the Internet into our programs and services. Look at what happened in California in the wake of the great tax revolt of the late 1970s.
BALANCE AND CLARITY
In the wider circles of the city, country and region in which the library is located, this simple assumption can be highly questionable. With this, in the eternal struggle between tradition and progress, we are firmly on the side of the latter.
ENVOI
Our Code of Ethics tells us that we have a responsibility to serve all library users, and what collection development and cataloging are, but actions taken on behalf of all future library users, as well as those who live now
