Role of Librarians

[ROGERS Dorothy E]

Am I really the only respondent to catch Donald Barclay's meaning? 
 Everybody, lighten up and read his message again, please!  He said that 
libraries would die the way radios and a whole host of other things have 
(not).  He said that libraries would change and adapt to the needs of the 
times just as the subjects of his analogies have, all of which are today 
alive and well.

I agree with him completely.  Those of us who are within libraries are 
probably, whether we realize it or not, already well into the adaptive 
process.  See all of those OPACs on the Internet.  See the online forms for 
interlibrary loan.  See the links to information on the Internet.  See 
library patrons place and delete their own holds online, send reference 
requests online, make purchase requests online.  See the homeless person 
accessing the Internet from a PC in the library...  All of these are just 
the beginning of the transition libraries are making to the information-rich 
future, and many of us could name more.

No, Donald is not saying, even in sarcasm, that libraries are dying.   He 
stated quite accurately that as with most species, libraries will adapt and 
evolve into a new, improved, service for delivery of information.  I say the 
change is already occurring.

And if you'll investigate the homepages of some of the library automation 
vendors you'll discover that libraries will have their own web browsers. 
 You'll also find on some (probably on all within a short time) links 
between physical information in libraries and cyber-information on the 
Internet that can be provided only by libraries.  To provide "one-stop 
shopping" for information for the vast majority of the people, libraries 
will still be where it's at, and librarians will have put it there.

Dorothy
dorothy.e.rogers at ci.eugene.or.us

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Carlos said:
| On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Donald A. Barclay wrote:
| > I think that the Internet means the absolute end of libraries and
| > librarians. My analogy will demonstrate.
|
| If I haven't missed something, this is the first
| message on this list to say that the end of libraries
| and librarians was coming, even sarcastically.
|
|<snip>

| But is this the future that librarians want?
|
| Isn't the exciting and interesting part of the
| information environment exactly the part that is
| at risk?  Nobody is saying that libraries are
| going away.  But I am saying that librarians are
| in danger of missing out on the real fun.
|
| Unless.
|
| Unless librarians take up the challenge and
| create a system for helping people access
| information on the net that is more enticing
| than Lycos, Yahoo, Infoseek, SavvySearch, or
| Excite.  It's a world-class challenge, because
| the information-seeking tools most people are
| using today on the net were created by the
| competition.  As Stu said, start your engines.
|
|
| Carlos McEvilly
| cim at lanl.gov
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