Comments on: Guest Post: Libraries are Dying (And That’s A Good Thing)

By: Musings on Mission « Tiny Glass Houses

Musings on Mission « Tiny Glass Houses — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:05:10 +0000

[...] connect with a more diverse range of patrons, and serve our communities more flexibly. My four favorite library manifestos conflict with each other, and with my own beliefs, in all kinds of delicious [...]

By: Felicia

Felicia — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:49:03 +0000

Great idea, planning ahead for the inevitable end. My fear is in higher education, in general, when many students are struggling with the primitive literacies (and their instructors are struggling to keep their careers going), who will teach information literacy? The distinctions between source types, I suppose you might argue, will matter less when everything is published in digital format with interactive graphics, etc. Peer review is going the way of the card catalog, etc. So soon we will have only one type of information source and there will be no need for understanding and evaluating sources. Still…. Still I wonder… This argument captivates me and frightens me all at once. Luckily, I don’t have children.

By: Steve McCann

Steve McCann — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:03:43 +0000

I love the idea of setting an expiration date on the profession. ALA should convene a task force to set this date, then send out a press release saying “World, librarianship will officially cease on X Date as long as the following criteria are met.” Once our criteria of true net neutrality, open access, universal broadband, a collapsed digital divide, etc. etc. are all met, we can all rest easy.

By: Leo Robert Klein

Leo Robert Klein — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:28:05 +0000

I’m not quite sure where the author figures a public space for information is going to be found — if not through the library.

In a way, this is the same service we have been providing since time immemorial. The author suggests no credible alternatives.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:31:43 +0000

i don’t disagree on any particular point. information science, if it is a science, is evolving to this kind of direct-to-brain experience. it is what information professionals have dreamed of, is it not?

my one point of interest would be to note that by eliminating the hard-text-written-record, we risk knowledge becoming tainted by a larger source. what if a government oversight committee was able to control this service in X years? is that paranoid? i think it would be very short sighted to disregard that the button that instantly releases all of the information, could also withhold it. where would we be then?

i am a library/archives student. i cannot imagine a world without information defenders. perhaps the library of the future will more resemble an archive?

By: Libraries are Dying (And That’s A Good Thing)? I Beg your Pardon! « The Room of Infinite Diligence

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:35:37 +0000

[...] Guest Post: Libraries are Dying (And That’s A Good Thing) [from See Also a Library weblog by Steve Lawson] [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:55:02 +0000

Dear Astute Unbiased Liberator,

Since the time of Carnegie, libraries have been little more than a breeding ground for strivers and the bourgeoisie. Real change requires violent revolution, not halfhearted piecemeal reforms. The middle class serve as more powerful agents of oppression than the rich ever could. As Bukovsky so wisely said, “”I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it.” – only when all of us can embrace this approach to information literacy will we be fully free.

True revolutionaries will applaud this statement. Welcome to the fold.

In solidarity,
Sybilla Samizdat

By: John Overholt

John Overholt — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:50:33 +0000

Dear Anonymous AUL,

Speak for yourself.

Sincerely,
Special Collections