Hello, Marcos,
I grew up in Queens and fondly remember what I recall as the Main Branch
of the Queensboro Public Library somewhere in Jamaica. I remember
spending hours at microfilm readers there.
I understand your rant and now that I'm living in the small town of
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (my wife's home town and officially part of the
Greater Toronto Area) we do make use of the Aurora Public Library which
was recently enlarged. My boys and wife go there regularly for help with
school projects, despite a thousand-plus-volume library here at home,
more if you count LPs, CDs, and tapes.
I also fondly remember many trips to the Donnell Library branch of the
New York Public Library, just across 53rd Street from the church I would
attend in my last years in New York City. Donnell's LP circulating
collection help introduce me to a wide variety of Broadway shows which I
never could have afforded to buy on LP at that time. I did end up buying
many of those in LP and CD form as my income increased over the years.
I also made use of the Library at Lincoln Center a few times.
Anyway, I hope that Libraries will be around. They offer a great level
playing field so that anyone, independent of ability to pay, has access
to great ideas. Anyone who would attempt to monetize (oh how I hate that
word--to me it symbolizes much of what is wrong with our society today)
library access would be flying in the face of that goal. After all,
wasn't it Andrew Carnegie who gave grants for libraries in smaller towns
all across the U.S.A?
I do think that Google's approach may be interesting as an index and may
actually help libraries gain more patrons.
On the other hand, I applaud what David Seubert and his colleagues at
UCSB have done with their cylinder collection. This becomes a library
that transcends the brick and mortar (well, in Southern California they
don't use bricks without serious reinforcement, but you know what I mean)
approach. It takes the brick-and-mortar edifice that is required for the
library to house and protect the artifacts and extends it and permits the
library to offer its unique collection to the world.
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
In addition, the Web portal was really a byproduct of the real work of
the cylinder digitization project, and that was to preserve the
cylinders. While the cylinders themselves are a unique archive, they are
fragile and probably deteriorating, although the timeframe of the
deterioration may be longer than other media.
Also, preservation by geographic separation is a crucial concept, brought
home to us many times. As a former resident (21 years) of Southern
California, I am aware of the risks posed by fires, floods, and
earthquakes. It is a GOOD IDEA to have geographic separation in all
collections and it is an even BETTER IDEA in California.
While the digital copy of the cylinders may not be the original artifact,
the interest in the artifact is a much narrower interest than the content
of the artifact. We have proven this time and again with paper-back
books, microfilm, and now digitization. Certainly, owning a Gutenberg
Bible is far different from reading a paper back or faux leather low-cost
Bible...or even keeping one in your vest pocket (but no one wears vests
anymore). Not everyone has to have access to the original Gutenberg Bible.
One interesting perspective of this value is that SMPTE in working up
definitions for the new digital world created the word "essence" to mean
the basic picture and sound information and "metadata" to describe all
the ancillary data. The digitization project captures the essence of the
cylinders and makes them available to all, in an egalitarian manner to a
great degree. The only price of admission is a computer connection, and
that can often be obtained gratis at the local public library. That
aspect of the usage of this could be considered an updated inter-library
loan model.
I don't think that the "replacement" concept as in replacing horse and
buggies with automobiles is valid for traditional libraries being
replaced by computer networks. We still need the repositories for
traditional the artifacts. What we might see are local libraries with
limited and narrow collections (see below about "Rego Park") being
replaced. Tom's point about the Bedford Hills Public Library was, I
think, that it contained unique collections of artifacts that were not
replicated elsewhere. Whether it be the local library, historical
society, and/or museum that keeps these artifacts is immaterial. Here in
Aurora, we have the library but we also have an Historical Society which
has two museums (one under reconstruction as a true museum, the other a
snapshot of a doctor's home office from the 1860s and on). There are many
papers filed with the Historical Society that are not part of the Library
collection, and it's indexed differently. We've been blessed with a very
involved and caring curator who is retiring after about 25 years of
giving to the Historical Society.
On the other hand, if the Queensboro Public Library could extend its
collection of material into peoples' homes via a computer network and
make it more accessible than having to travel to Jamaica to find anything
meaningful, wouldn't that be great? I do recall one or two very
disappointing visits to the Rego Park branch (I lived in Forest Hills)
that convinced me the schlepp on the E or F train and the walk was worth
it to go to the main branch.
So, please forgive my ramble, but I think I'm sort-of agreeing with you,
but also looking at the merging of the technologies to better serve all
people who are inquisitive.
Now, if I could only impart my inquisitiveness to my two boys. Slowly, I
think it's working...but it's frustrating. Often they prefer The World
According to Disney to The Real World. I hope they understand the
difference.
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm
Cheers,
Richard
At 09:11 AM 3/25/2006, Marcos Sueiro wrote:
I must admit I am a bit surprised, if not shocked, to see a
discussion on the value of libraries in the ARSCList, of all places.
Come on people! We are talking about the repositories of human
knowledge!! We're talkin' Alexandria, Cordoba, Trinity College, so
on and so forth! Possibly one of the greatest ideas of humankind,
and an amazing gift to all of us. (I am convinced that if someone
came up with this idea today in the Western World, it would never
happen. Just imagine the publishers and record companies: "Wait a
minute. You are going to let people borrow this stuff for free? Are
you out of your mind????") Libraries are wonderfully anachronistic,
but also timeless. And while I applaud the idea of digitising
materials and making them available on the web, it cannot be a
library's primary function. Such a position I find between naive and
arrogant, assuming that computers, or something that can read
computer files, will be around forever. Maybe they will be, maybe
they won't. One thing we know for sure: Libraries have been around
for hundreds and hundreds of years, they seem to work, and have
changed the course of knowledge's history several times, by
revealing previous knowledge that was not popular at the time, but
that some inquisitive soul picked up (the Renaissance, anyone?).
I live in Queens, NY, whose public library system claims to have the
highest usage in the world, and I love to see people of all creeds,
colours, and ages populate its library branches. Engaging in one of
the most wonderful of human endeavours: the sharing of knowledge. For
free.
There is only so much digitising one can do. Only the "useful" stuff
will be put up on the web. What you end up is with a generic
MacLibrary of knowledge, Google or not.
Keep the buildings open!!!
Ramblingly yours,
Marcos
Tape Restoration Seminar: MAY 9-12, 2006; details at Web site.
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm