[Web4lib] FW: Circulating Kindle and Nooks

Tue Apr 13 14:12:14 EDT 2010

What wonderful thread this has become!

I would like to emphasize a few ideas.

In adapting the concept of libraries to modern times, it would be a mistake
to overlook the power and utility of ambiance.  Call it the power of place.
 People are still social animals and they still are, each according to their
interests and personality traits, attracted to human interaction, tangible
presence, the "feel" of places.  If this were not true, Starbucks would not
be a successful venture.  Libraries and churches are examples of physical
environments that program those within them to be receptive to intellectual
and spiritual content delivered there.  Until the holodecks of Star Trek
fame become a reality, delivering content within a physical place will
continue to be desirable and effective.

Having said that, content is an abstraction that in modern times often does
not require a fixed place to exist, but still benefits from being presented
or promoted in a place.  Libraries have hitherto been places in which
content is promoted as sacred in some sense.

Still, to be viable over time, a library as a physical place needs to be
designed to attract -- not just in terms of the content which is accessible
there, but in terms of the psychological benefits derived from being there.
 Services, access to expertise, and access to non-digital content containers
(i.e. "books") are still important, but it is the veneration of its content
promoted by that place that will justify continuation as well defined
entities.

I happen to be interested in promoting virtual libraries as the future
vanguard and custodian of research publications, but that is not the
dominant role played by libraries in general.  Libraries in general are
mechanisms for promoting the preservation and use of accumulated knowledge
by members of society at large in order to insure that everyone has a
substantial inalienable right to access the wisdom accumulated from the
experience and imagination of all others over all time.

So yes, Cary Gordon is correct, there is now a battle raging between those
who think they own content and those who are the champions for the ultimate
intended beneficiaries of content.  What's worse, it is not always the
authors (though some of them are in league) but the distributors who are
asserting their control and usurping all mechanisms that threaten their
dominance.  The problem for them is that in terms of pure content, as
created by the authors themselves, publishers and distributors are
potentially irrelevant in the electronic age.  They fight back
by seizing control over the intellectual property rights involved -- and
many authors join in, albeit, in my opinion, with somewhat stronger moral
credentials.

If these purveyors of content look at a library as competition, they will by
a thousand cuts destroy them.  If they think they can control them or
benefit from their existence, they will tolerate them.  If public libraries
in particular are accepted as necessary to democracy as is a free press (a
corrupted concept these days) then perhaps they can become untouchable.  A
public library is a public utility.  The public library as a place is a
symbol recognizable to all that having access to ideas and objective
knowledge is a right without which a "free" democratic society cannot
endure.  Mass media has aptly demonstrated that it is vulnerable to bias and
conflict of interest and will likely never obviate the public benefit
libraries provide even though it competes with them for societal attention
and wins overwhelmingly on market share alone.

So, you guys in the library business are quite literally at a crossroads in
history.  I am impressed to see your recognize and grapple with the
implications of all that is going on.  It is a difficult problem, but a
fascinating one.  I can only hope that my view of the nature of the problem
will be of some use or inspiration.   I have no crystal ball and no
privileged view to promote.  My bias is simply that I think the loss of free
public access to basic information, and even the ideas championed by works
of fiction, are what allows societies overall to continue to mature -- and I
value that.

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 10:32 AM, Mitchell, Michael <
Michael.Mitchell at brazosport.edu> wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:
> web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Michael Schofield
> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 10:13 AM
>
> <snip> At some
> point (way down the road), it is reasonable to expect that everyone will
> have a tethered device with [hopefully] free [but probably just cheap]
> internet. Then the question is what use is a physical library when everyone
> has their own hardware and free access points abound nationwide.
> ...........................
>
> I am beginning more and more to like the idea of library as place.
> Community, social, intellectual center where people come to learn, mingle,
> share the environment, information, and knowledge. The Intellectual Commons
> so to speak. I don't think our physical tools, equipment, or resources will
> be able to be exceptional in the new world but we can still offer a unique
> and rarified environment. And, we'll still be the experts in the quest for
> knowledge and available to share that expertise.
>
>
> Michael Mitchell
> Technical Services Librarian
> Brazosport College
> Lake Jackson, TX
> michael.mitchell at brazosport.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4lib at webjunction.org
> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>
>

-- 
Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D., J.D.
Personal Cell: (352) 219-6592