Walls around the electronic library
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045227 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Pages | 165-174 |
| Author | Hannah King |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
Walls around the electronic
library
Hannah King
SUNY
Health Center Library at
Syracuse, Syracuse,
NY
13210,
USA
Abstract: This
paper,
based
on
an analysis of print and
electronic discussions and on experience at 'the front
lines'
in collection development and reference in an American
academic health science library, questions the wisdom of
permitting visions of the electronic library to drive library
budgets and strategic
planning.
To market these visions,
librarians may promise more than they can
deliver,
given
the harsh social and economic realities predicted to
intensify over
the
next several
decades.
The electrification
of the delivery of traditional products and services is
inadequate in itself to respond proactively to the needs for
new products and services. Identification of new solutions to
emerging needs would make
long-range
planning efforts
more effective. The effort to identify and fulfil needed new
roles to librarians and libraries demands new social and
organizational concepts, in addition to technical expertise.
The paper concludes with
a
proposed agenda for action.
1.
Introduction
The main objectives of
this
paper are:
(1) to promote a more critical stance toward computer and
telecommunications applications, electronic network
models and popular conceptions of the electronic li-
brary;
(2) to advocate that as much effort be invested in the devel-
opment of innovative social, political and economic
linkages as is now invested in the development of elec-
tronic linkages.
First, this paper characterizes the vision. Second, virtual
promises made to sell the electronic library are explicated
within the framework of current social and economic reali-
ties.
Third, the paper introduces the need for new roles, re-
sponsibilities and models that will allow users through walls
erected by harsh economic, cognitive, social and political re-
alities. Fourth, network models that recognize the critical im-
portance of cooperation, resource sharing and research by real
librarians for real users are described. The paper concludes
with a proposed agenda for action.
2.
The vision
'This program will expose LITA and other ALA members
to highly fascinating and thought-provoking visions of
the future of information technology and its place in
society. The program will draw upon the inspiration of
speculative fiction because it is in the literature of
speculative fiction that these visions abound. It is also
clear to me that many LITA and other ALA members are
already privately drawing upon this literature for
precisely the same purpose'(Peters
1992,
p.
10).
'The emerging goal is a seamless electronic environment
in which individuals may access a variety of information
and knowledge sources in a manner that is simple and
easy, and independent of time and place and subject
discipline, for the purposes ranging from augmenting and
refreshing memory, to learning, decision-making, and
creating or uncovering new knowledge' (Matheson 1988,
p.
222).
Visions of the electronic library appear in some common ab-
stractions:
• without walls, seamless, transparent, a 'virtual reality';
• global network or matrix of digital data, information
and knowledge banks, warehouses, refineries, archives
and repositories;
• broadband expressways for transporting multimedia in
bits and bytes to end-users in distributed environments;
• artificial intelligence, expert systems, hypertext,
gophers, client servers, WAIS servers, knowbots to
navigate 'cyberspace';
• 'just in time' delivery to universal scholarly
workstations;
• independence from time and place constraints;
• gateways, doorways, windows and intelligent switches
and links.
The vocabulary (see below) describing the electronic li-
brary focuses on computer and telecommunication tools, al-
most excluding librarians and library users from the vision. In
cyberspace, science fiction — not science research — offers
the accepted forecasting model. Such visions should be chal-
lenged before they are permitted to drive library budgets and
strategic planning. Harsh social and economic realities pre-
dicted to intensify over the next several decades could make
lies out of
the
'virtual promises' of the virtual library.
The Electronic Library, Vol.
11,
No. 3, June 1993 165
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