Re: [ARSCLIST] Zits cartoon strip

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Here's an example of where libraries are still very useful, for now.
>
> I work in Bedford Hills, NY. On nice days, I like to put on my iPod and
take a brisk walk around
> town at lunchtime. I like to look around at the old houses and once in a
while notice something > interesting, one being a horse trough with a
memorial inscription in a stone wall that surrounds a
> church. Now, where else except the Bedford Hills library am I likely to
find out the story behind
> that memorial? Turns out they have a whole Bedford/Bedford
Hills/Westchester County area with a nice
> little table on which to read the books. Most of these books and documents
are one-offs and don't
> circulate. The librarian was so excited that someone wanted to learn
something about the little > hamlet that she helped me zero in on the info
in just a few minutes. It's an interesting story of
> robbery foiled and an upstanding citizen murdered but I forgot the exact
details so don't want to do
> any myth-making here.
>
> Point is, no place but the Bedford Hills library is going to have that
info. This whole idea of "all
> information being online" is only true to a point. I find that there is a
lot of common knowledge
> easily accessible online, and a whole sewer/slum of myths, rumors and
garbage (I had to do massive
> corrections to a few entries on Whacky Packia, so I do not trust anything
there or on anything like
> it) and some obscure academic materials. But I am dismayed about what's
NOT up there. Stuff like
> local news (except what's in the local crapola Gannett newspaper), local
history. There are vast
> holes in historic audio and documents (part of this is the seeming
obsession by some collection > holders to just, well, hold on to things
instead of make things available to us unwashed masses -- I
> can cite MANY museums, libraries and academic archives; all I can figure
is that it's a power thing:
> "I and only I hold this material and you'll only use it on my very
restrictive terms").
>
> Another library example that just popped into my mind is the downstairs of
the Saranac Lake
> library -- a huge collection of all things Adirondacks. I've spent several
rainy days in there, > completely engrossed.
>
Actually, the "holes" in available information are a sadder story!
In many cases, the information still exists (in old newspapers, old
notes or notebooks, old recordings and so on) but the party who owns
it has long since forgotten he/she/it has it, and also has no idea
where it is! So...upon his/her/its demise, the heirs (or whomever
gets stuck with cleaning out the joint, which might be the local
dept. of sanitation or the demolition crew moving in to make room
for the upscale subdivision...) look at the stuff, remark on "I
wonder why Dad/Mum/Uncle Josh/Aunt Thelma/the crazy guy who lived
here/usw. piled up all this <deleted naughty word> for us to get
rid of..." and proceed to toss it in a dumpster or the local dump.

I've known more than one research project (never shared with anyone
else in most cases) that effectively died with its owner(s)!

As far as the data being on the Internet...remember that it takes
either expert assistance (which has to be paid for) or time to type
out the HTML scripts oneself to make anything net-available. Some
years ago, I uploaded all of Steve Abrams' discographic files to
a then-free data-sharing site...fortunately, others downloaded
them before the site became pay-to-play, and made them available
elsewhere on the net! But...think of how many old notebooks, or
privately-kept handwritten notes, could be added to a repository
of discographic knowledge...but probably never will be...!?

Steven C. Barr