Summary: One post proclaimed proudly that the Internet is no substitue for a library [if you are talking about a good to great library, it really isn't, not for many tasks and information seeking behaviors]. Now, 10 years after the original article was published, Amercian Libraries looks back at some recent critique.
10 Years Later, people look back at the "10 reasons the Internet is no substitute for a library" poster
BLOT: (20 Apr 2011 - 06:13:26 PM)
10 Years Later, people look back at the "10 reasons the Internet is no substitute for a library" poster
I have seen the poster referred to in this BoingBoing article—Found Sign: Why the Internet Is No Substitute for the Library—or one much like, down in Gadsden, AL. It was in a classroom at the University of Alabama Extension. At least, it was there a couple of years ago. At the time, I mostly clicked my tongue. Many of the reasons range from valid to semi-valid—issues with information overload, problems with quality control, the advantage of having information professionals to help you out—but others, such as claiming billion dollar price tags for scanning a mid-sized collection and how ereading is such a chore, are things that were quickly altered over the next decade. With the advent of hand-coms, carrying around the Internet is quickly becoming easier than carrying around a stack of books.
I often claim that I am a digital anarchist in an analog field (field = librarians) but I think it is more that I think of technology, especially information technology, as a tool that we adapt, nurture, and grow to fit our needs. When you critique technology for its lacks, even when your claim is currently quite valid, it is only useful if you do so in a way that helps to correct the issue. I'm an open-source man, through and through, you find breaks so you can fix them. This informs my information technology stance, as well: I try and find out where technology lets us down so I can find ways to work around it or adapt it.
I personally love the comment on BoingBoing where someone says the Library and Internet are not nemeses. They are not opposed. They are in the same field, doing the same fight, and they can work together.
I found the above bit through American Libraries who admitted the problems with the original article, though they point out they have updated the list. The updated version has similar problems as the old, citing how we have "We have nearly 1,000 years of reading print in our bloodstream" [how's that for missing the point in many ways?] and talking about a Virtual Library bankrupting a state budget. Ah, well.
OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: April 2011
dickens of a blog
Written by Doug Bolden
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