Will Libraries Survive

Yesterday my physical therapist asked "Do you think libraries will survive?" when I told him I was in the MLIS program. I told him I thought they would if they learn to adapt to the new technologies available. He replied with "But you can already find everything on the Internet. Why would anyone go to the library."

This I believe is a commonly held opinion. While this opinion dismays me I do not believe it to be true. There is much that has been published that is not available on the Internet. There are great works that people who do not read flip through books will never know about. This along with recent discussion I have had led me to contact my programmer friends. I am hoping that they might have a solution on how to make the library books easier to search. It would be great if we could come up with a google or bing for libraries but at the very least it will get a conversation started.

Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass

"The truth is that even big collections of ordinary books distort space, as can readily proved by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned secondhand bookshop, one of those that look as though they were designed by M.Escher on a bad day and has more staircases than storeys and those rows of shelves which end in little doors that are surely too small for a full sized human to enter. The relevant equation is:Knowledge=power=energy=matter=mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Holethat knows how to read"-Terry Pratchett

This is one of my favorite quotes. It reminds me of my used bookstore with 100,000 books of varying types and conditions. I loved my bookstore and I loved the books. I loved every inch of the "knowledge=power=energy=matter=mass" that I called my own. I enjoyed passing it on to others and I felt that I was fulfilling a purpose. When the bookstore closed I felt like I had lost that purpose.

I entered the MLIS program in the hopes of recapturing that feeling of purpose. I am saddened by the focus on technology in my first two classes. Where I respect technology I do not believe that it in itself makes for a library or for that matter knowledge. I am hopeful that as I progress I will find that these classes are not the norm and that there will be more focus on the actual printed material and the maintenance, cataloguing, preservation and conservation of it. I am hopeful that I am not wasting my time on a degree that will be just as mind numbing and as tediously consumed by computers as my current career in software support.

The Invasion of the Nook

Yesterday I walked into my favorite Barnes and Nobles and was saddened. Immediately upon entering the door I was confronted with a kiosk for the Nook. Now I understand that Barnes and Nobles is trying to compete with the Ipad and Kindle but really do they have to place the kiosk right when you enter the door? The growing popularity of eReader and eBooks saddens me. For me a book is not just about the words but about an experience. I thoroughly enjoy holding a book in my hands. I love the smell of the paper, the way the spine cracks, the texture of the boards in my hands and the imprint of the ink. I love the cover art the summary on the dust jackets. I love the peace I get whenever I sit down and open a book to begin a new adventure. I understand publishing is expensive, and that publishing houses are struggling to compete with Internet for readers. Technology has it's place and I respect that. I just fear that technology will eventually destroy one of the few things that gives me complete joy in life.