alh writes “On Thursday, February 1, Michael Gorman will discuss the Changing Role of Academic Libraries in the Information Age at the The Chronicle of Higher Education Live Discussion forum.
“Academic libraries face some of their greatest challenges, and greatest opportunities, of the generation. While the Internet has been a boon for information distribution, some librarians have considered it a threat to the vitality of traditional library space. Although the latest generation of students is plugged in and connected in ways never imagined years ago, they also seem disconnected from books and other traditional literary resources. Librarians and their academic colleagues must step up to face those challenges, says Michael Gorman, dean of library services at California State University at Fresno. He will share his thoughts on the future of librarians — and take your questions.””
Back in 1998
I gave a presentation at MLA with almost the same title–in fact, it was the first I’d heard of Blake because he picked it up, I think. There was much more hype and angst among librarians then. For the most part, I was addressing public service people in academic libraries.
Checking back, I see I wrote,
“In that technology parade we call the digital library, we public service librarians are the pooper scoopers of the library world–we have to clean up after the parade passes by. And I say that because all the cutting edge stuff, the band music, the balloons and floats are happening in technical services and the automation departments.
We in public services are left to explain the transient nature of our resources to our patrons. Our customers used to have a few visual cues about what was located where. However, if your institution is like mine, what we had last month may not be what we have next month, and if it is, we moved it or changed the menu or hooked up a different printer, or changed a password or possibly it disappeared and no one told us, or we are promising our customers a service and we keep changing the due date. We continue to redesign and refine our Web pages and sometimes I can’t find what I used yesterday. A library support staff in Britain asked “Are we controlling the change or is the change controlling us?”
Ah the memories. And why I’m loving retirement.
retirement Re:Back in 1998
I believe Gorman will be joining you in spirit starting next week.
Does not Truly Reperesent Academic Librarians!
Why can’t Gorman go into the night quietly? He does not have any handle at all on the future of libraries. He wants to go backwards.
Re:Does not Truly Reperesent Academic Librarians!
He wants standards, I can’t hold that against him.
Re:Does not Truly Reperesent Academic Librarians!
As long as they are his standards and no one elses. Also as long as no blggers are involved (GRIN)