A library is not the books: an ethical obstacle to the digital library
| Date | 11 May 2012 |
| Pages | 93-106 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779961211227001 |
| Published date | 11 May 2012 |
| Author | James M. Donovan |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
A library is not the books:
an ethical obstacle to
the digital library
James M. Donovan
College of Law Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that libraries do not inevitably arise from the
aggregation of information, and to apply this result to critique the meaningfulness of the idea of
a “digital library.”
Design/methodology/approach – Three independent arguments demonstrate that libraries are
more than the sum of the books that they contain: first, the logical argument, which analyses
the internal consistency of claims for the superiority of electronic formats; second, the semantic
argument, which examines ordinary language to isolate the core requirements of what it means to be a
“library”; and third, the ethical argument, which identifies the source of the unique phenomenological
experience of encounter with the library.
Findings – It is found that the three arguments each refute the view that “library” is the collective
noun for “book,” and argue instead that it is an emergent concept that offers to its community
a reflection of the local cultural knowledge through the ordinary selection and organization practices
that distinguish libraries from other book accumulations. Against that understanding the idea of
a comprehensive and universal digital library fails on the essential criteria of selectivity and
organization. While such products can be powerfully useful, they offer something distinct from
libraries. When we lose sight of this difference we risk losing the inherent and irreducible values
embodied by libraries.
Originality/value – The paper’s arguments provide a reasoned infrastructure to several beliefs that
are both common and unexamined.
Keywords Libraries, Semantics, e-books, Digitaltechnology, Category, Definition,Numinous,
Phenomenology,Collection, Digital, Organization, Selectivity,Intentionality
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Casual and thoughtful speakers alike frequently use “library” as though it were the
collective noun for “book”: A herd of cows, a murder of crows, a library of books.
In practice it matters little whether “book” is understood as a specific physical artifact
of ink and paper, or whether it refers more generically to any information-containing
entity. The consistent point appears to be that in the presence of a sufficient number of
those items, a library necessarily rises into existence.
This implied relationship proves critical to debates over the implications of digital
formats for libraries. If libraries are reducible to their books (however understood), then
a fundamental change in books requires a similarly radical reaction from libraries. In
that view, to the extent traditional books themselves are an endangered medium, then so
too must be libraries, given that they are mere “warehouses” of books (Sandler, 2005,
p. 16). To resist such inevitable changes not only betokens an unhealthy conservatism,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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A library is not
the books
93
Received 21 January 2012
Accepted 21 February 2012
Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society
Vol. 10 No. 2, 2012
pp. 93-106
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/14779961211227001
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