Library filtering column

[Nick Arnett]

Dear Brock:

The debate about filtering library Internet access is a distraction, based
on the naive idea that libraries should offer access to the same
disorganized Internet mess as any generic net connection, minus pornography.
By confusing computer science with library science, filtering supporters
assume that Internet technology has already filled our digital library
shelves.  So, the argument goes, after a bit of First Amendment-friendly
pruning, every library with a net connection can now offer its visitors a
useful wing located in cyberspace.  Baloney.

Libraries create value for their communities by choosing, acquiring and
organizing information resources.  Internet plumbing has dramatically
reduced the cost of one of these -- acquisition.  Should cheap access imply
that librarians must open the information floodgates and shift their
attention to filtering unwanted information, a 180-degree turn from
selection and organization? 

Even in the short history of the Internet, selection and organization have
produced more more value than undiscerning acquisition.  Compare Yahoo! and
Alta Vista.  Yahoo's smaller, categorized collection sees far more use than
Alta Vista's giant pile of unorganized information.  Yahoo is a showcase for
why library science has much to offer the Internet.

Those who think today's Internet would be made ready for the library by
merely pruning out the pornography should remember the lessons of the last
great drop in library acquisition costs, the printing revolution.  The
technologist Gutenberg went bankrupt even as a collaboration of librarians
and technologists -- the Aldine Press -- was a tremendous success.
Gutenberg invented technology with an enormous impact, yet he failed in the
end to create a valuable resource.

Here's the real question about libraries: venture capital is allowing
technologists to profit from library science; who will give libraries the
technical and financial resources to ensure that their Internet "shelves"
are filled appropriately?

Nick Arnett

Product Manager, Advanced Technology
Verity Inc. -- Connecting People with Information

Phone: 408-542-2164     Fax: 408-541-1600
Home office: 408-733-7613         narnett at verity.com
http://www.verity.com