[WEB4LIB] Summary of Responses-Libraryvs.Internet, quite lengthy

[Debora Seys]

>A popular statement you've most likely heard is that the Internet, as
>most have realized with use, is like a library with all the books on 
>the floor. The are no standards, no reference librarians.  The key 
>isn't libraries, it is librarians.

Thanks for sharing your work with us, I just have to comment on this
one statement because I've heard it before and it irks me - and I think
we, as librarians, should not repeat it.  The internet is *not* like
a library with all the books on the floor! - A library with all its
books on the floor (as ours was after the '89 earthquake - but that's
another story) would be BETTER than the internet because at least all
of those books (though out of order) would have been explicitly 
*selected* by someone to be part of the collection!

It's not just librarians that make a library it is the intelligent 
(one hopes) grouping and cataloging of specific items in a specific
and intentional way that makes a coherent and meaningful statement 
of a collection.   Access to the content of that collection, as well
as decisions about inclusion and exclusion, breadth vs. depth of 
coverage on a topic, etc., etc., all combine together to make 
a library and its catalog something VERY different from the 
free-for-all of the internet... whether the items are books, CDs,
databases, websites, on a shelf or a PC screen or ... on the floor!

whew.  Now I feel better.
Thanks
Debbie
-- 
Debora Seys (dseys at hpl.hp.com)               HP Labs Research Library
Information Solutions Specialist             1501 Page Mill Road, MS 2L10 
ph 650/857-3895 fx 650/857-2066              Palo Alto, California 94304