[WEB4LIB] FW: LJ: ALA Prez-Elect Gorman on the

[Rachel Singer Gordon]

It's consistent with other things Gorman has said -- I ran across
this statement in his recent "Our Own Selves," which I made note of
because it was just so extreme:

“Unfortunately, if there are writers of genius, or talent, or even
basic competence out there blogging, I have yet to find them. In the
early heady days of the Internet, we were promised that, in the
future, everyone could be published. Alas, that promise is being
fulfilled, which should remind us all to be wary of what we wish for”
(Our Own Selves: More Meditations for Librarians. Chicago: ALA, 2005:
208). 

- Rachel

>(Note: based on the December traffic, I think most of the discussion
>actually happened on Web4Lib, not blogs.)
>
>http://tinyurl.com/5ujgt
>
>In which we learn, in a response to blog entries critiquing Gorman's
>December 2004 L.A. Times article about Google Print, that the library
>blogging community is uneducated, fanatical, and obtuse. "[The] Blog
>People
>(or their subclass who are interested in computers and the
>glorification of
>information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of
>digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics
>who do
>not share that belief. ..." 
>
>"Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt
>that
>many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of
>complex
>texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met
>by an
>accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. ..."
>
>Nice. Really nice. Good use of the ALA presidential bully pulpit. No
>citations, of course. 
>
>
>K.G. Schneider
>kgs at bluehighways.com

---
Rachel Singer Gordon / rsinger at linc.lib.il.us
http://www.franklinparklibrary.org
http://www.lisjobs.com
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