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I hadn't realized my little funny would prompt such a passionate debate. :-) (And I'm on Digest mode, so it takes me a while to get through all the messages). My unwritten point was that libraries remain temples of information not necessarily because of the resources they offer, but the services they provide to a world in critical need of information navigators through the noise of the Internet. Why is the library still important? Consider these values of librarianship as taken from Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science: 1) Books are for use. 2) Every reader his or her book. 3) Every book its reader. 4) Save the time of the reader. 5) The Library is a growing organism. Substitute recordings or databases or Internet resources if you want for book, but these principles still hold up as valid goals for information providers. In 1995, future ALA president Michael Gorman articulated five new laws for the 21st century. One of those was to "respect all forms by which knowledge was communicated," and another was to "honor the past and create the future." To these ends those of us who are librarians (and I don't claim there is consensus) try to provide the most useful resource for a patron's information needs. Sometimes that will be a book, sometimes a video, sometimes a microfilm, sometimes an Internet database. All research builds on that which has been done in the past; and there is no evidence (save Google's testbed of five libraries) that it will economically viable to provide a world of digitized primary documents in the next decade (or two) to allow professional researchers to only use the Web for their research. While I was in library school in Indiana, I met many students that were on fire from the idea of working with primary materials like rare books and manuscripts (as well as cylinders and 78s, photographs and nitrate film). I think that there will be those in every generation who value artifacts from the past and will want to preserve them. Part of preservation is keeping the memory of that object alive, along with its context, in the form of access through surrogate copies (microfilm, digitization, reprinting). Two of the greatest gifts scholars and librarians have given has been the bibliography and the catalog which document the existence of materials that would otherwise be forgotten. We are all in the business of preserving memory for ourselves, our children, our students, as well as future generations. Ultimately I believe the two most valuable commodities a library can offer any community is its librarians and its buildings (some of the last free, public spaces where community members can gather without the pressure to consume.) I don't think the library is going anywhere. While some of the services it offers and the internal processes we practice must change, our goals remain and the backlog continues. Thom Thomas Pease Library of Congress * These statements are my own, and are not meant to represent any official views of my employers or institutions to whom I offer my services. --- Thom Pease <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > What's even more frightening is the cartoon from > 3/17 > in which Jeremy said that he was busy doing research > for a history paper due the next day. His mother > muses > "Ah, research! When I think of the hours I spent at > the library when I was your age..." Jeremy then says > "Done!," turns around and asks "Wait...you went to a > library?" > > I actually thought the strip's language was a little > stilted when he asked for the URL. I thought for > sure > he would ask for the name of the article and just > google it.* > > * Google (v) = "to search for information on the > Internet, esp. using the Google search engine." > (Dictionary.reference.com from Webster's New > Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition > (v > 0.9.6)) > > Thom Pease > > > Lou Judson wrote: > > > > Gee, that makes sense to me! I missed the article > as my online sub > to > > the NYTimes somehow lapsed... > > > > Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio > > 415-883-2689 > > > > On Mar 21, 2006, at 5:09 PM, David Lennick wrote: > > > > > Not necessarily....anyone see yesterday's > "Zits" > comic strip? The > > > father is > > > laughing uproariously and tells the kid, > "Jeremy, > you have to read > > this > > > newspaper article." The son replies, > "Okay...what's the URL?" > > > > Or he could even say, Text it to me, only that > would be "txt2M" in > his > > language. > > > > ;-)( Blog: "Audio Librarian: From A to D and Back Again" at http://www.audiointern.blogspot.com/ E-mail: [log in to unmask] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com