[1287] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Chronicle Article
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Public-Access Computer Systems For)
Wed Sep 23 12:24:36 1992
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 11:13:17 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
2 Messages, 68 Lines
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From: KAREN S. SUMMERHILL <ksumme01@gumedlib.dml.georgetown.edu>
Subject: Re: Chronicle Article
Devil's advocate or not, I am bemused by SImon Spero's attempt to
characterize me and presumably other librarians as some kind of "dead
tree" avengers (?) Frankly, I couldn't care less about books for books'
sake. I rest easy in the knowledge that there are book collectors and
historians and preservation specialists to care about that sort of
thing. Most reference librarians are concerned about the physical form of
information only in terms of accessibility and cost. I'd much prefer a
quick search and download form a full text database over wading through
indexes and wandering down stacks, however, that's unfortunately not yet the
most cost-effective way to retrieve a great deal of important material.
I suggest that in the *near* future, no one form (i.e. digital full text) is
going to prevail, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Not that
it's not technologically possible, or even feasible to put "everything"
online. Rather, in the short run, the price will be too high for all but
the most privileged users of information. In the interests of access to
the population as a whole, then, centralized information services (that's
*services*, i.e. information acquisition, organization and access, *not*
warehousing) are still the best route.
As to the idea of professors handing their students every piece of
information they need, I find the idea both farfetched and troublesome. I
won't even discuss the possibility of bias on the part of the faculty member.
But, who's going to hand these people all the information they need after
they graduate? Their employers? their government? their candidates fro
public office? their 6:00 news? Will they be paying a dollar a minute to
search a commercial database to gather even the most basic facts? Don't we
as educators have some obligation to teach people how to efficiently identify
and obtain good information on their own?
Finally, although physical campus-wide distribution systems are certainly
handy (and a fairly common library-based service) as a means of distributing
needed information (books, photocopies, downloaded database search results,
etc.) to faculty members, at this point the feasibility of an efficient system
for remote delivery to an entire student population is doubtful, mostly
because I think a university is still willing to burden its students with
walking into the library upon occasion. In any case, once a system of this
sort is up and running, its maintenance is essentially a clerk's job, not a
librarian's. Reference librarians are not particularly interested in being
directly involved in maintaining inventory control of physical items such as
books. We are interested in assuring that seekers of information and
knowledge are provided access to the widest range and the best quality of
information available regardless of the seeker's personal wealth or stature.
Karen S. Summerhill
Education Services Coordinator
Georgetown Law Library
ksumme01@gumedlib.dml.georgetown.edu
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From: <PEMMONS@WCU>
Subject: Re: Chronicle Article
>>What will the students be using to do THEIR work?
>The information collected for them by their professors and lecturers; what
else!
That would be a good definition of spoon-feeding or indoctrination; perhaps
an adequate definition of training. It would be a highly inadequate definition
of higher education, and about 180 degrees wrong as a definition of research.
Paul Emmons
West Chester University
