[WEB4LIB] Re: FW: LJ: ALA Prez-Elect Gorman on the "Blog People"

[K.G. Schneider]

> BTW, the Library Journal piece mentions, "...my sin lay in suggesting
> that Google is OK at giving access to random bits of information but
> would be terrible at giving access to the recorded knowledge that is the
> substance of scholarly books."  (From the original L.A. Times piece,
> it's clear the problem is really presenting snippets of books out of
> context, or somehow getting the books in the wrong order: "The books in
> great libraries are much more than the sum of their parts. They are
> designed to be read sequentially and cumulatively, so that the reader
> gains knowledge in the reading.")
> 
> Funny, I don't recall any vitriol being thrown about when Roy Tennant
> wrote: "Google hype to the contrary...Large research libraries that
> never weed their collections as a matter of policy end up with lots of
> outdated, useless material. Join this with blind, wholesale
> digitization, and it's clear we will soon find ourselves in a world
> where incorrect, dated information trumps current, accurate information
> through circumstance." <http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA502014>
> 
> Maybe it's all in how you say it.

If I don't get off the computer I'm going to end up going to my board
meeting in my bathrobe. But I don't see these quotes as analogous (though I
do agree--this is something suggested in a writing class I'm taking right
now--that it's a good idea not to insult your readers. Writers, take note!).
As I read it, Gorman is saying you have to read books in order or they don't
make sense, and that the content of these books isn't useful when it's a pot
o' data. Tennant is saying that when the trash barge gets larger and filled
with, well, more trash, it gets harder to pick through, particularly (he
didn't say this, I did) when you lack the tools to pre or postcoordinate the
mess. (It's not a trash barge if the good stuff is at the top. It's, well,
it's my living room!)

It may be a difference of degree, but at 250 degrees the cake will fall. 

Karen G. "Can I Mix One More Metaphor, Please?" Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com