In the article "The Infodiet: How Libraries Can Offer an Appetizing Alternative to Google" Steven J. Bell addresses students' growing inability to conduct any sort of meaningful research. He compares the Google search engine to fast food; it's fast, easy, and not the best way of getting what you need. The library seems to have been lost in a world of paper, ink and complicated search engines that students don't understand. Bell suggests that libraries try to make search engines more like Google so that students are less apprehensive about learning to use them. It would seem that students of today are suffering from information overload where the information they have isn't even the information they want. With better designed search engines Bell thinks students will be able to edit out for themselves the information that is less desirable and keep information that is relevant and scholarly.
The Google issue is obviously something that needs to be addressed and I think Bell provides some good suggestions for libraries and others to contemplate. I especially liked the "information-literacy initiative" idea because that addresses the heart of the issue: a student isn't going to use something they don't know about. When a group of people is putting on a play or performance they have to post information and posters to let everybody know what is going on... these scholarly search engines are relatively new and need the same sort of publicity. One issue I think Bell didn't touch on was the growing divide between the intellectual elite and "regular people." Some of the most tech-savvy people might not know about sites like EBSCOhost because they aren't really talked about within the general public. I think something like an "information-literacy initiative" would be the best way to close that gap.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Future of Libraries
The Future of Libraries
Thomas Frey
November 2nd, 2006
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2006/11/the-future-of-libraries/
When I talk to people about libraries one of the questions that always comes up concerns the future of libraries. Thomas Frey addresses this issue pretty completely in his article "The Future of Libraries." He starts off discussing the role of libraries in the past as a place to archive information mostly for those who could not afford books because they were very expensive. More recently libraries have shifted more toward a place for people to go who enjoy reading for the sake of reading. Today information is everywhere and can be easily found on the web, this means people go to the library less and less for the purpose of research. Frey brings up some really interesting points in this article. He talks about how books and writing are really just a form of technology and all technology has a "limited lifespan." This means that books eventually will be phased out of popular culture. With new ways of storing information the process of actually finding the information you are looking for will become more and more difficult. Librarians will play an integral role in the libraries of the future. At the end of the article Frey gives libraries some tips about surviving the transition into the future.
I found this article really interesting. The way the library of the future is depicted in this piece sounds really fun and exciting. I would love to be able to hang out and study in library like the one Frey describes. I think that Crossman guy is totally wrong about literacy being dead and the future being totally verbal. One of the main reasons I don't think that will happen is that people simply enjoy silence sometimes. I have a hard time studying when there is music playing that have lyrics... If the world becomes ONLY verbal and all the computers are operated by voice it would be impossible for people to really focus on anything. I do think there will be a verbal aspect but I think Crossman goes a little too far in saying that it will only be verbal and that literacy will be dead by 2050.
Thomas Frey
November 2nd, 2006
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2006/11/the-future-of-libraries/
When I talk to people about libraries one of the questions that always comes up concerns the future of libraries. Thomas Frey addresses this issue pretty completely in his article "The Future of Libraries." He starts off discussing the role of libraries in the past as a place to archive information mostly for those who could not afford books because they were very expensive. More recently libraries have shifted more toward a place for people to go who enjoy reading for the sake of reading. Today information is everywhere and can be easily found on the web, this means people go to the library less and less for the purpose of research. Frey brings up some really interesting points in this article. He talks about how books and writing are really just a form of technology and all technology has a "limited lifespan." This means that books eventually will be phased out of popular culture. With new ways of storing information the process of actually finding the information you are looking for will become more and more difficult. Librarians will play an integral role in the libraries of the future. At the end of the article Frey gives libraries some tips about surviving the transition into the future.
I found this article really interesting. The way the library of the future is depicted in this piece sounds really fun and exciting. I would love to be able to hang out and study in library like the one Frey describes. I think that Crossman guy is totally wrong about literacy being dead and the future being totally verbal. One of the main reasons I don't think that will happen is that people simply enjoy silence sometimes. I have a hard time studying when there is music playing that have lyrics... If the world becomes ONLY verbal and all the computers are operated by voice it would be impossible for people to really focus on anything. I do think there will be a verbal aspect but I think Crossman goes a little too far in saying that it will only be verbal and that literacy will be dead by 2050.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A Different Point of View
Finding Censorship Where There is None
Mitchell Muncy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574420882837440304.html
Banned Books Week is here! Every organization from the ALA to the New York Times is posting articles, scheduling events, and talking about banned books. Chief operating officer of the Institute for American Values, Mr. Muncy, has a few unorthodox views concerning this week's intended and actual outcomes. Most groups support Banned Books Week because they want to show their disapproval of censorship and their support for the first amendment. Mr. Muncy believes that while these groups fight in the name of the first amendment they are really fighting against it, making people feel like they should not speak up at all when it comes to concerns about books. He asks, "'True' patriots, presumably, would have kept quiet. Who, then, is afraid of discourse?" He points out that there are actually NO banned books in our country. There is a difference between government censorship and local library or school challenges. "In only 10% of the 186 cases... was a book permanently removed from a library," Muncy points out. And even in the cases of removal a person need not go too far to find another copy of the same book. Using the Banned Books Week's own language he calls these organizations zealous and argues that what they are really doing is stifling free speech.
I've never heard somebody speak out so harshly against the ALA or Banned Books Week. The article presented a view point that is not put forward very often and Muncy makes some very interesting points. I think that people should have the right to challenge books but I am also against censorship... where does this leave me? Wanting to remove books from a public place because they offend your belief system or might possibly corrupt the innocence of some unnamed (or named) child is selfish, but I think it would be just as horrible if we didn't have a system where people could voice their opinions about such topics (even if I don't like those opinions).I am glad to have found and read this article, it was refreshing.
Mitchell Muncy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574420882837440304.html
Banned Books Week is here! Every organization from the ALA to the New York Times is posting articles, scheduling events, and talking about banned books. Chief operating officer of the Institute for American Values, Mr. Muncy, has a few unorthodox views concerning this week's intended and actual outcomes. Most groups support Banned Books Week because they want to show their disapproval of censorship and their support for the first amendment. Mr. Muncy believes that while these groups fight in the name of the first amendment they are really fighting against it, making people feel like they should not speak up at all when it comes to concerns about books. He asks, "'True' patriots, presumably, would have kept quiet. Who, then, is afraid of discourse?" He points out that there are actually NO banned books in our country. There is a difference between government censorship and local library or school challenges. "In only 10% of the 186 cases... was a book permanently removed from a library," Muncy points out. And even in the cases of removal a person need not go too far to find another copy of the same book. Using the Banned Books Week's own language he calls these organizations zealous and argues that what they are really doing is stifling free speech.
I've never heard somebody speak out so harshly against the ALA or Banned Books Week. The article presented a view point that is not put forward very often and Muncy makes some very interesting points. I think that people should have the right to challenge books but I am also against censorship... where does this leave me? Wanting to remove books from a public place because they offend your belief system or might possibly corrupt the innocence of some unnamed (or named) child is selfish, but I think it would be just as horrible if we didn't have a system where people could voice their opinions about such topics (even if I don't like those opinions).I am glad to have found and read this article, it was refreshing.
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