[Web4lib] Re: One consequence of the digitization programs

[Walt Crawford]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Walt Crawford <waltcrawford at gmail.com>
Date: Nov 6, 2007 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] One consequence of the digitization programs
To: Anders Ericson <anders.ericson at norskbibliotekforening.no>


This could be getting off-topic, but:

"When someone is about to borrow a 3 years old book about the Iraqi war, you
do inform her about the newer ones, don't you?"

I must admit, I've never had that experience in a public OR academic
library--that is, selecting a book from the shelf (or an article from an
aggregator), getting ready to check it out or print it out, and having a
librarian (or virtual librarian, or system message) say "Wait: That may not
be the most current or best information on the topic."

Now, if I took a resource to the reference desk (if there are reference
desks...) or its online equivalent and asked, "Is this the best resource on
Topic X?" I might expect an answer--but what percentage of users will or
should do that, especially with online resources?

I most certainly do not expect (nor would I welcome) librarians or avatars
to get in my face and say "Stop! In the name of Dewey! Before you take that
book. Think it over."

Nor, frankly, do I expect Google Book Search, the Open Library/Open Content
Alliance, MS Live Book Search, or Worldcat.org to point me to--really?
Wikipedia?--to evaluate a digital resource before I use it. (Presumably with
a warning that Wikipedia itself isn't inherently reliable...)

Bibliographic Instruction is lovely. I don't see how it can or should happen
at the point of transaction unless a user asks for it. And most of us won't.

walt crawford


On Nov 6, 2007 8:59 AM, Anders Ericson <
anders.ericson at norskbibliotekforening.no> wrote:

> I'm not interested in visual quality, but the texts. The attitudes; the
> biases of e.g. 19th century authors. Those that are more and more likely
> to
> pop up into our faces when searching the web.
>
> When someone is about to borrow a 3 years old book about the Iraqi war,
> you
> do inform her about the newer ones, don't you?
>
> ae
>
> > -----Opprinnelig melding-----
> > Fra: Brian Gray [mailto:mindspiral at gmail.com]
> > Sendt: 6. november 2007 17:35
> > Til: Anders Ericson
> > Kopi: web4lib at webjunction.org
> > Emne: Re: [Web4lib] One consequence of the digitization programs
> >
> > Are you looking for information about the quality of the digitizations
> > or quality of the information available? It seems to me these are very
> > different.
> >
> > You start off suggesting you are interested in the quality of the data
> > with the comment about the "often unreliable and false information".
> > But I do not see how Google's efforts are any different than what all
> > our libraries do already in form of collection policies, especially
> > since they are just using what libraries make available to them. Are
> > we not ourselves by levels of participation determining what goes
> > online? We do not identify in our catalogs now what is considered good
> > or bad information, so do we expect to hold Google-like projects to a
> > different expectation?
> >
> > Or, are you specifically interested in the actual visual quality of the
> > scans?
> >
> > Brian Gray
> > mindspiral at gmail.com
> >
> > On Nov 6, 2007 7:26 AM, Anders Ericson
> > <anders.ericson at norskbibliotekforening.no> wrote:
> > > Libraries and others do a lot of digitization these days. But one of
> the
> > > (unintended) consequences is an increasing amount of very easily
> > available
> > > texts in Google - however old and often unreliable and false
> > information.
> > > (Not unlike the new, but you get my point?)
> > >
> > > I'm looking for digitization efforts that include some "consumer's
> > > information" on the quality of digitized documents. Like links to
> > Wikipedia
> > > articles or librarians' input.
> > >
> > >
> > > Anders Ericson,
> > > Web editor, Norwegian Libr. Assoc.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Web4lib mailing list
> > > Web4lib at webjunction.org
> > > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Brian Gray
> > mindspiral at gmail.com
>
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