Why we won't be here in 20 years-NOT

[Lou Rosenfeld]

On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, John_Goldsmith wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> To misquote Mark Twain, "News of our death has been greatly exagerated!"
> 
> It doesn't take a rocket scientist with 5 nanoseconds of 'Net experience to
> figure out that access to information does not equal information access.
> Given the sorry state of 'Net searching tools and the constant cry from
> most folks, "I don't have TIME for this s#@%!", I'm amazed that anyone uses
> the Internet for research.  The only folks I know who are still
> pontificating on the wonders of the "Information Highway" (just had to get
> that cliche in) are the people who know nothing about it and have never
> used it.
> 
> It's my hope that even the most purile netizen will soon realize that
> without some sort of order and organization, the Net as an information
> source is virtually useless.  And,  who are the people who can bring order
> out of chaos and leap tall buildings at a single bound - TA DA - us,
> librarians!
> 
> Maybe I'm dreamimng but I think there is both a great task ahead and a
> great future for librarians and information specialists and I have every
> confidence that we will not only be around in 20 years but that we will
> also have the respect and admiration which we deserve.
> 
> My $0.02.
 
Agreed.  Ditto.  Amen.  And hallelujah! 

But, as an aside, I wonder if the Internet will change (or already is) the
habits and expectations of researchers. 

What I mean is will researchers begin to look at the *associations*
between chunks of information (e.g., links, serendipity) as more important
than, let's say, the comprehensiveness of their search results. 

If this will be the case, the organization of Internet information may not
be as important as this thread suggests, or it may be very different than we 
think of it now. 


> John Goldsmith,   Fraser Valley Distance Education School
> http://www.fvrcs.gov.bc.ca   e-mail: jgoldsmi at rainbow.fvrcs.gov.bc.ca
> 
> 
> 

Louis Rosenfeld                                             lou at argus-inc.com
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