[ARSCLIST] Libraries--was all sorts of things...

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Miller" <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
> > This indeed makes sense to me (sadly, in some ways)...and I have
> > found that publicly-funded libraries in general tend to "err on
> > the conservative side" in relation to any copyrights applicable
> > to their holdings. In fact, I wonder if this practice comes
> > from the difficulty they might have, should the question be
> > forced, in justifying making their holdings freely (and FOR free)
> > to the portion of the public they serve!
> By law, libraries are allowed to purchase and loan out materials. Hence,
> fear of having that right removed is not a concern.
> 
> In general, my 30 years of work in libraries has told me that librarians
> are conservative, and reactive by nature. I believe one needs to keep in
> mind that most librarians have rarely done any research other than that
> needed to get their library degree. The effect of this in the world of
> research libraries is a topic that has already been addressed in the pages
> of the Chronicle of Higher Education and is being further explored...some
> of you might remember a posting on this list asking for librarians with
> doctorates in subjects other than librarianship to respond to a survey.
> 
> In general, I believe the reactive nature of librarians is due in part to
> the nature of those who choose the profession. Libraries are generally a
> secure working environment and as they are monopolies, are not subject to
> any measurable quantification of effectiveness other than things vaguely
> identified as "Patron Satisfaction" surveys. How does one evaluate your
> University Library when you have nothing to compare it to?
> 
> While I don't see much hope for change, I must admit that what I have read
> from the writing of Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress I am
> extraordinarily impressed. His background includes a PhD, a Rhodes Scholar
> who has taught history at Harvard. This sort of background is not what one
> usually encounters in the world of libraries. He is both a researcher and
> a scholar.
> 
> I believe that the push to access will have to come from the research
> community, for, in my experience, librarians, especially those on the
> front lines of public service, are subject to administrations which, in
> general, do not have research experience or understand the needs of
> researchers. I also believe that the internet has, in general, made the
> spirit of the law, and the intent of the law, unenforceable.
> 
> This morning I got an email from a friend who sent me a website in Japan
> where I could download, for free, copyrighted Stokowski recordings (All
> American Youth Orchestra), in decent transfers.
> 
> I just hope things change before I die. There is too much I want to hear
> and study and just don't have the resources to hang out at the Library of
> Congress, or New York Public, or Stanford...
> 
I think there is another important qualification for librarians (however,
I don't recommend going to the extreme that I more or less did!). One has
to be the sort of person who is fascinated by numbering things, keeping
them in order, and to some extent collecting them (although that is 
often the specific task of others). Taken to an extreme, the result can
be a fascination with database technology (not a bad thing for libraries
or their "keepers!") or what could be called "its analog equivalent"
(i.e. 3x5 cards and ways of completing them, usw.). Without this sort
of folks, we could well end up with huge collections of information
or documents (in the widest sense of that term) kept in no particular
order and with no way of finding any one item except by chance!

In my own case, I have established that, although never formally so
diagnosed, I most likely suffer from Asperger's Syndrome...an odd
form of autism that tends to maske its sufferers fascinated with
things like mathematics (my major) and organizing and documenting
things to the point of obesssion-compulsion (my regular pastime).
In my case, the fascination is with 78rpm records (which I also
enjoy listening to...fascination with, and skill in, music is
another trait/symptom of this) and all the data I can possibly
acquire on them. In other words, I would be well suited for a
position supervising a music collection in a library...EXCEPT FOR
the lack of that all-important graduate degree in Library Science!

Were I not nearing "official senior-citizen status" (threescore
and five)...I might rent myself out as a cataloguer...

Steven C. Barr