It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. Particularly in the world of information. Never has there been so much information available, and never has so much information been so easily accessible by so many regardless of income level or social status. The bad news is that the library profession and library funding are under fire due largely to a sluggish worldwide economy and the resulting rush to shrink public funding. Ironically, the need for professional librarians has never been greater as we launch into a knowledge based economy. When I entered the profession, many of us served in an information desert where we constantly scanned the horizon seeking information oases. Today we function in an information jungle where our skills are needed to hack through the tangle of search results to locate the credible and appropriate information sources that are best suited to our patron's needs. Book digitization and information wikis are two rapidly expanding Internet based sources of information. In order to cover this trend and to provide an access portal to many of these sites, we are building a companion website. DigitalLibraryNE is currently under construction, but we encourage you to visit the site and watch two videos that we believe frame the discussion about the future of books and information. Brewster Kahle and Jimmy Wales are not professional librarians, but we believe that their passion for providing access to books and information in a digital format to as many people as possible benefits the mission of all libraries.
I have a number of information heroes/mentors. Most are not even aware that they are mentors since my connection with them is either through a workshop or perhaps their online or print presence. Some who come to mind are Candy Schwartz, Wes Fryer,David Warlick, Jim Moulton, and Joyce Valenza. Having said all of that and naming names, my thoughts today are mostly aboutWilliam Badke who has inspired and informed me through dozens of articles, his information literacy website, and his book, "Research Strategies: Finding your way through the information fog". As an academic librarian, Mr. Badke has a first hand view of the research skills of high school graduates. One of the reasons for his books and articles is to sound the alarm to librarians, school administrators, and K-12 educators that K-12 students need more comprehensive information literacy instruction prior to entering college. Another benefit of his writing is that he provides a road map to reach that goal. It is not enough, however, to provide that road map or to simply hire professionally trained library media specialists to manage our school libraries. There needs to be a school wide awareness of the need for information literacy instruction by these trained professionals. That commitment needs to be made from the top down. Boards and administrators need to mandate that information literacy instruction is integrated in the context of real research at every grade level and that information literacy competence is a graduation requirement. The results of a failure to do so is the equivalent of sending our students out to sea in a hurricane in a kayak with no paddle.
A library without books is a provocative concept for librarians or any book lover for that matter. Now it could mean that the books are simply stored off site and retrieved via a high tech system such as the one demonstrated in this video of the University of Chicago Library. More frequently, however, it refers to the increasing trend toward all or predominantly digital library collections. Examples range from the Cushing Academy Library to the University of Michigan or the University of Texas libraries. Whether it is the move to offsite storage, closed stacks or the move to ebooks, they all remove the opportunity for serendipitous discovery or random encounters with ideas and information that one often experiences when browsing the shelves. Not to mention the intoxicating feel of being surrounded by bound volumes that have been handled and read by students and scholars over the years. Will that experience be lost to the digital age? Maybe not since library software developers such as Follett are working to recreate that encounter through digital shelf browsing where the user can peruse a virtual shelf of books. There is no doubt that we are in transition, and while it is doubtful that we will see the elimination of bound books in my lifetime, we need to carefully consider the impact of this transition on reading, learning, and thinking, In fact, I encourage you to pick up a copy of "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr.
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AuthorW.F. Leonard is a professional library media specialist who carefully walks the tight rope between the physical and electronic library collection. ArchivesCategories |