Vanishing Libraries

The BBQ Pit
1

Yesterday I attended a meeting at what used to be a research institution. While waiting for the meeting to start, I wandered down the hall into a suite of rooms, which I immediately recognized as a Library. Or, rather, a *former[p/i] library. It was clearly not being used in that capacity. The set-up made it clear that this is precisely what it had been. There was the main desk, there the tables, there the carrels. The bookshelves must have been there, and the card catalogs there. eventually came across a cabinet of microform journals, which confirmed it all.

I found an occupied office nearby, and asked what happened to the library.

“Digital revolution,” he told me.

What, were the journals now all online? Were databases accessible through everyone’s computer monitors, and were there subnscriptions to index services? No. As far as I can tell, the library was simply gone, with no replacement.

This hits hard, especialy when I consider that at another company I have just seen the remnants of their once-immense research library being packaged up in plastic wrap. Another department wanted their space. And the company I used to weork for (until the end of last year) had its library grotesquely shrunken, and what’s left resides in a single room. Its fate is still undetermined.

It seemsd that no one wants the trouble and expense of maintaining a library, something I havde always regarded as essential to any research endeavor.

And, yes, I know that there has been a revolution in libraries, with a lot of on-line stuff, and the journal explosion has made it impractical to keep up with the journals one formerly had. But these libraries aren’t merely cutting back, they’re shutting down altogether.

And, in other news, my town’s public library just squeaked by with its “accreditation”. If they hadn’t made it, they’d be out of luck on getting funding, and that would make it reduce its already reduced functions still further, or even close down.
This is grotesque. Doesn’t anyone care about libraries anymore?

2

Just use Wikipedia or use Google to find someone’s Geocities page. It’s just as good as a peer-reviewed journal or other published work.

3

There’s a huge amount of stuff that’s not on someone’s page, and a lot of journals that aren’t online, not to mention the vast amount of literature never scanned in anywhere, both in books and in journals.

On top of which, you can opretty much trust journals – they’re peer reviewed and edited (or at least edited). The Internmet doesn’t have an editor. God knows it ain’t peer-reviewed.

4

As a veteran liberrian (over 20 years), thank you CalMeacham for your support. I find it ironic that a research institution got rid of its library. This is a disturbing trend, usually defended by the words “but everything is on the Internet.” We know that not everything is on the Internet and what’s there isn’t always free or accessible or valid or true. There’s a lot of crap on the Internet as I don’t hesitate to tell the physicians and nurses in the hospital where I work. There are not a whole lot of books on the Internet. There are thousands of journals not on the Internet. But people higher up who control the money and who run the institutions can’t get this through their thick heads. They don’t understand the concept of librarians and libraries. They think we are not necessary. Well, if everything is on the Internet and librarians aren’t necessary, why the fuck don’t students know how to do research and write a paper? Why can’t physicians and scientists search databases relevant to their specialties? Lots of reasons–time, access, they don’t understand the structure of the literature or know how databases are constructed. And they certainly aren’t going to pay the thousands of dollars it costs for access to databases. They have forgotten high school algebra and Boolean logic. No concept of controlled vocabulary or indexing. They don’t know how to evaluate literature. Hell, they don’t even know what journals are published in their specialty. But librarians do. It’s not their job to know this, but it is mine. And that is what I am here for and what I am good at. I’ve had people say to me “I’ve been looking for information on xyz for months and haven’t found anything.” My response is “I can find it because that’s what I am trained to do.”

Knowledge is free, but information will cost you.

5

Word. :smiley:

6

FTR, I was being facetious. Shoulda stuck a smiley of some kind in there…