"Libraries of the Future"

[2005-04-01]
Verner Clapp, 2nd in command at LC, hired JCR ("Lick") Licklider to study man-machine symbiosis in 1961 just before going on to create the ARPANET. His book, published under Clapp's guidance was Librarians of the Future. (per Nicholson Baker's Double Fold, p. 20). Clapp founded the Council on Library Resources (CLIR) 1957, and is criticized by Baker for promoting the "double fold" test for acidic paper (See Darnton in NYRB, 4/26/04)

"Librarians under threat" article by Tony Tysome p. 8 of Times Higher Education Supplement, Feb. 11, 2005, on plan at University of Wales, Bangor, to eliminate 8 out of 12 librarians

[2005-02-11]
Johns Hopkins University president William R. Brody has pro-librarian piece in Dec. 6, 2004 issue of Johns Hopkins Gazette


And here's the story from the Library Journal Academic Newswire Publishing Report, February 17, 2005:


SUBSTANTIALLY DESKILLED? IN WALES, A UNIVERSITY MAY CUT MOST OF ITS
LIBRARIANS In a move that has rankled librarians and teachers throughout the
United Kingdom, the University of Wales, Bangor, is proposing to eliminate
eight of its 12 librarians, on the premise that students can find most
information they need online. According to the GUARDIAN, a "consultation
document" issued by the university last month said that a £300,000 (about
$566,000 USD) savings could be realized by reducing the library staff to one
cataloguer, an acquisitions expert, a chief librarian, and a law librarian.
"The support to the academic and student communities from the qualified
subject librarians, whatever its contribution to the teaching and research
roles of the institution," reads the document, "is hard to justify in
value-for-money terms at a time when the process of literature searches is
substantially deskilled by online bibliographical resources."

Librarian Eileen Tilley told the newspaper, "The university thinks that
because we have the Internet it no longer needs skills teaching. I would say
[the Internet] has, in fact, complicated the resources...users are confused
and need guiding through this." Meanwhile, the university's registrar said
the document was to stimulate discussion and that no decisions have been
made.

[2005-04-19]
Carnegie Report article: Do Libraries Still Matter?. "The answer seems to be a resounding yes," he writes in the lead-in sentence, "because libraries are more than just a place to keep volumes on dusty shelves."



[2005-04-15]
In Praise of Library Personnel, cited by Daniel Stuhlman on Hasafran. Actually pretty lame stuff, e.g., "they are no longer 'just the librarians' that we grew up with ; they are now information specialists ...", as though they weren't all along?