Alright folks, now that the dust is settling after the fiasco of the past few weeks, I should be able to get back on track and get back to my usual writing.
At least, I’m hoping so.
Digital Libraries: challenges and influential work.
The article is basically a history of where we’ve come about for digital library resources, including the DLI projects and which universities/institutions took part to get us where we are today.
Personally, I liked the reference to aggregators and how they are impacting how we do our jobs. Even more interesting is the note on how Google is still the team to beat, as Google Scholar is a product commercial companies are trying to replicate. I still don’t think Google is the end-all-be-all that people make it out to be; there are some great ideas there (such as standard combined with full-text metadata), but with my experiences with Google as a whole, I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of putting this product on the pedestal.
One thing I will agree with: aggregators are a great idea, especially when coupled with the concept of full-text metadata. Maybe I’m living in a dream world and have been blown away by some of the commercial products I’ve had presented at work, but hey, a guy can hope.
Dewey Meets Turing: Librarians, Computer Scientists, and the Digital Libraries Initiative
To begin, the title gave me a chuckle, and the introduction gave me some hope as to what was to be discussed. Comparing the expectations of Librarians and Computer Scientists, and tossing in Publishers to complete the trifecta? Move over soap operas, library science has you beat!
But now to be serious for a few moments: when you consider library science and computer science merging together to work on something, you’d only assume it could be a match made in heaven. Libraries need ways to sort and sift information, computer scientists need better and more efficient ways to do their own research. Sounds like a good idea in general.
The article explains the complications these two groups faced, especially with the Web connecting machines (and therefore, data) in unexpected ways and improvements to technology and the way computers “think.”
This article does bring up some other food for thought that has come about due to the changes in technology and its integration into library services, the biggest one referencing the acceptance of online-only publications. With all of the debate regarding copyright law and open access publishing, I do have to wonder if this medium will come to be the primary method of doing things, and if so, how long until print materials and other “traditional” library resources and services are phased out for digital materials and “capable” computers?
Thankfully, we get to see some glimmer of hope at the end of the article, showing that we librarians aren’t entirely phased out just yet. . .
Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age
http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br226/br226ir.shtml
And now we have an article on Institutional Repositories. With this article, I was walking in blind, as I haven't exactly heard the term utilized in the workplace before. The author defines an institutional repository as "a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members." To me, this basically states it is an archive of things created by the members of the institution (in this case, a college), and allows access to this information by members of the set community. Have a missed something in this?
It would seem this is a step toward institution-sponsored open access, in that the creator (in this case, a faulty member) can update a previously written work or continue the work in that same topic without the time consuming steps of scholarly publications. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't we need more of this in the academic community, where faculty members who want to write about a topic can do so without the hassle?
Maybe I'm living in a dream world, but I would like to see that come to be.
I liked your comments on 'Dewey Meets Turing.' Soap operas...indeed! I think that, despite all the progress we've made with digitizing things, there will always be room for print materials. Maybe this is just the sentimentalist in me, but I think that some people will always want to hold a book rather than reading a screen. Digital materials can do great things for access and sometimes are preferable to print materials. But I think they can both coexist just like librarians and computer scientists seem to be managing.
ReplyDeleteHello Christy,
ReplyDeleteI do think it is possible for print and digital materials to exist side by side, but I still have that lingering fear that the current e-publication craze will continue on, and books will slowly fade for a variety of reasons.
That, and I just like playing devil's advocate and starting up debates on print versus digital, if only to see what sort of reasons people have for one side or the other.
--Anthony
No, we librarians aren't phased out yet, but I do think the writing is on the wall: much as some of us may not be completely comfortable yet with it, we're going to have to become, in the words of Paepcke et al., "well, normal computer scientists." That is, we can still have the patron's/user's interests at heart, but we're going to have to become much more proficient with technology, and start to think like computer scientists, if we're going to have any say in how we solve some of these digital dilemmas.
ReplyDeleteChristy, sorry to say, but I disagree that print materials will always be there. I think print and digital materials will coexist for a number of years, but eventually, printed materials will be phased out. I would even go further to say technology is already phasing out many things that were once considered staple library materials, such as the Oxford English Dictionary, the next edition will only be available online.
ReplyDeleteI like printed materials as much as the next person, but as a Kindle owner, I can also say that eBooks are fantastic, and all of the free public domain books that you can get on it are great.
In this debate I'd have to say I'm still undecided. While my love of books and having things in the printed materials is difficult to let go I can't help but acknowledge the ease and evolution of e-materials. I don't necessarily think printed materials will get fully phased out anytime soon theres no denying that e-books and the like will only increase in prevalence.
ReplyDeleteRE: online-only publication - I can see broader adoption and application of exclusive online content creation and publication in the non-academic world, but I really struggle to believe that academia (for as progressive as it can be in some ways) will easily accept the validity of online-only academic publications when there's such a well-entrenched system of rewards associated with traditional scholarly publication. It seems that so much is riding on the ability to 'get published' (i.e. tenure, promotion, a different job, etc.) and the academy's diffidence toward online publications seems short-sighted at best and negligent at worst. Considering the system is so beholden to the publishing industry which itself is struggling to exist, I find it hard to believe that the traditional system can be sustainable in today's climate. In addition, there's some first rate scholarly material out there that I'm sure is being overlooked because of its form and not its content. As you say, maybe we're living in a dream world, but it would be great to see 'non-traditional' publications elevated to a level where the form is no longer detrimental to the validity of the arguments.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a hot topic! I do have to agree that print material will be phased out, I do think it will be later rather than sooner. I still have interactions with patrons at the Reference Desk that would rather purchase a book than use an e-book provided by the library.
ReplyDeleteThis may be where the intersect needs to occur though. Students don't like e-books because they are burdensome to read and make notations. If computer scientists can come up with a special user friendly software, maybe the change will occur sooner?
This is quite the discussion here! I do believe that eventually, print material will indeed become a thing of the past. I have mixed feeling about this, but regardless, I do see it happening in the future. However, I doubt print resources will be completely phased out anytime soon...there is simply still too high of a demand for a total shift from print to electronic resources to occur. It still seems like so many users really want to have a print copy in hand, and while electronic materials are quite convenient and very user-friendly, it would be stressful for many people to be limited to electronic resources only. Who knows though, time will tell what happens with the print world of information.
ReplyDelete