Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloguing again--ARSC responsibility?

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006, steven c wrote:

> In another decade or two, a digital catalog could include
> a field containing the entire text of a book...a sound file containing
> the sonic content of a phonorecord...or an image file containg one
> or more views of a work of art such as a painting or phonograph!

How about now...Google, iTunes, etc. but unfortunately, not libraries.

> One hopes future librarians will be thoroughly conversant with
> digital technology...!

I don't see that happening. Libraries don't have salary structures which
can provide competitive salaries to attract those with highly marketable
technical skills. Also, as long as they continue to subject themselves to
outdated, unnecessarily labor intensive operational modalities, they will
never have the opportunity to substantively restructure their resources.
When they do "innovate," they seem to act on the "being forced into it"
mind set. To cope seems to be the motivation...innovation seems to be
beyond their comprehension.

The old model of information management required almost an obsessive
compulsive mind set...which is not a personality type known for
innovation.

I don't believe libraries will disappear, heaven help us if they did, but
I do believe their relative role in society will continue to diminish in
importance...and most of that being the result of their own doing...or
lack of doing.

Karl