[WEB4LIB] Re: Summary of Responses-Libraryvs.Internet

[Brian Smith]

See my sig for a variation on these sentiments.

> 
>>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!


Brian Smith, Reference Librarian
Villa Park Public Library (IL)
. . . But writing only on my own behalf.
bsmith at linc.lib.il.us
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"Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled
piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly."  -- Roger Ebert
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