Web4Lib discussion on libraries in a webby world
Last week we had a very interesting discussion on the Web4Lib discussion list about how libraries relate to other online tools like, of course, Amazon and Google. I thought Alane Wilson’s post was dead on in a lot of ways, although we shouldn’t forget the absolutely vital role that non-tech librarians play. Going Web doesn’t mean dropping the expertise that has made libraries what they are, even if sometimes the hype on the tech side makes it appear that the biblio- side is obsolete.
On the flip side, sometimes experienced librarians will have to give up some of the control over tech-related projects. The best way to do this? Develop a culture of participation.
Another great post, by Karen Schneider, made a number of interesting points including:
We have been told that even when we saw a trend truly developing, a trend, not a fad, and we who follow trends recommend we ride it like a wave instead of being next year’s adopters. We can own a technology and build our user base through it, the way the rest of the world operates, or we can ignore it until the commercial forces have coopted more users and by the time we do adopt it people are asking where we have been with it. “My users won’t understand it”–in the early 20th century, in the Social Work movement, librarians went out of their way to help immigrants learn the ways of the New World. That is what we do. That is who we are. Books are just one quiver in our bow. Besides, in many cases, by the time librarians get around to adopting some newfangled trend, their users already well understand it
As for me, I’m going to include this post I made in response to some thought-provoking comments by Brian Collier:
- [On how libraries are the only place to get old news articles, particularly with the NYT business model] -
That’s an issue that online news services have to figure out. What happens if they follow the public’s advice and shift to an open archive model? It’s a future being publicly debated so we should probably be prepared for it. Of course, if libraries can get web localization working nicely, we can look forward to the day when I can go straight from google to the library holding in one click.
My point is that we can’t just expect the current apples and oranges to stay apples and oranges. It’s a model that’s broken on both sides, since online tools like LexisNexis are by no means easy to use in comparison to web search. As such, our job is to make our tools better, integrate the online experience as much as possible and find our worth in quality of service and ease of use. Depending solely on our exclusive access to a body of information, in this case news archives, would just be making the same mistake all over again. Our resources are necessary and are far, far, far more extensive than what’s available online, but it’s useless if patrons find other services they feel fit their needs and believe the myth that libraries are no longer very necessary, a belief that will only increase as more info gets connected.
- [On whether libraries will be largely web applications] -
Our statistics and interactions with patrons show that they are moving en masse to online services and the feedback we get, at least in my department, indicates they expect our services to behave like other applications they use.
But libraries still have a significant physical role which, like this topic, is currently being debated to death. WRT academic libraries, I like how Carlton College’s Sam Demas put it (as noted by Kathlin Smith in CLIR Issues):
“[Demas] uses the ancient Library of Alexandria as a frame of reference for the modern library. Decrying the specialized focus of many academic libraries, he turns to the ideal of the Mouseiona ‘temple of the muses’that was, ‘in name and in fact, a research center, a museum, and a venue for celebrating the arts, inquiry, and scholarship.’ Libraries such as this provide not only information resources but special collections, art exhibits, and performances; they also support scholarship and encourage engagement with it.”
Add to that the library as a computing hub and you have yourself a better library than existed before.
So the library as a web app is just one part of the mix, but perhaps the most important part. It’s a major function that libraries have to consciously acknowledge. This means adopting tools and methods that work, like making user-generated data an integral part of the services we provide.
That is actually the reason why we need to view it as a web app. Wired’s Chris Anderson is absolutely correct by pointing out in his Long Tail discussions that a web applications’ success depends on how it benefits from user participation. Asking what features patrons want isn’t enough. What makes Google and Amazon so great isn’t primarily the loads of cash, it’s the ways in which they make data generated by the users central to the services they provide. The web is interaction. People use and like Google’s ranking because it is an artifact of mass behavior. There’s nothing preventing the library community from developing their own applications other than the inability to recognize this as a priority.