LIS 600: Foundations of Library and Information Studies

Week Five

Kevin Rioux, PhD

Division of Library and Information Science

The Technology Debate In Librarianship:

• Very quick changes in how we provide access• Educating new librarians about technological issues• Brick & mortar libraries vs. “digital libraries”• Disintermediation and threats of obsolescence

– Competition from for-profit• Commodification of information• Budgets: buy technology or buy materials?• Overly ambitious technophilia vs. traditional Ludditism• Media hype (lack of evidence to support some technologies• Status conferred by technology

Some history

• Libraries have always been influenced by technology

– Clay tablet to paper

– Printing press

– Electricity

– Card catalogs

– Classification systems

History, cont’d.

• 1920’s: microphotography was developed and adopted

– Considered a VERY big innovation

• Extremely fast and cheap printing and reproduction after WWII

– Mimeographs and photocopying

– Drastically changed the cost of dissemination

History, cont’d.

• Computers were employed in library applications by the 1960’s.

– Punch card technology

– Often for information retrieval issues for special libraries that supported Cold War defense projects

– Belief was that it would completely automate the information cycle

History cont’d.

• MARC records were developed in the 1960s

– MA chine Readable Cataloging

– A standard created by LOC

• MARC paved the way for “bibliographic utilities”

– Outsourced support tools

– E.g., OCLC (Online Computing Library Center). Academic only at first--later opened to other library types

• Prepared pre-made catalog cards

• Member libraries’ holdings were placed in a large networked catalog

– Supports ILL, acquisition, reference, etc.

History, cont’d.

• RLIN -- Research Libraries Information Network: another bibliographic utility

• Online indexes, especially for scientific communities, e.g., National Library of Medicine’s Index Medicus

Computers in Libraries

• Library community was somewhat mixed in opinion

– Some became early adopters and innovators

– Some were (and remain) skeptical of technology’s ability to enhance service.

• First major use of online technologies in libraries (late 1960s, early 1970s):

– Early on were quite complex, using Boolean arguments to search

– Costly and not free to patrons (problematic)

• At the same time circulation, acquistions and OPACs were being developed.

Computers in Libraries, cont’d.

• 1980s, CD-ROM

– Search tools were improved

– Fixed cost subscriptions

– Could hold lots of information

• At the same time

– Commercially packaged and in-house developed OPACs and circulation and acquisition systems

Computers in Libraries, cont’d.

• Integrated Library Systems (ILS)

– Coordinated and automated:

• Acquisitions

• Serials

• Cataloging

• OPAC

• Circulation

• Collection management

Computers in Libraries, cont’d.

• OPACS– Quick and easy access to bibliographic records– Distributed online in the 1990s– Much more flexible searches than what card catalogs offered due to an

expanded number of access points in the record– Expensive

• “Hybrid” libraries– A mix of traditional and digital collections and services

• “Digital Libraries”– A managed collection of information, with associated services, where the

information is stored in digital formats and is accessible over a network (Arms, 2000)

– Important in distance education contexts

Computers in Libraries, cont’d.

• Portals

– Customized for clients

– Library homepages

• Digital Reference

• Financial factors associated with electronic resources

– Acquisition time and effort

– Installation and space costs

– Training

– Maintenance

– Upgrading

Origins of the Internet

• Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Research Agency (DARPA) created a computer network called the ARPA-net to facilitate information exchange among defense contractors (around 1969).

– Early development of FTP, email, file sharing

• National Science Foundation (NSF) got involved in the mid 1980’s to facilitate multi-site research projects

Origins of the Internet, cont’d.

• National High Performance Computing Act in 1991--government support for the development of the Internet.– NREN--National Research and Education Network: to link

businesses and educational and governmental agencies

• In the early 1990s, government was joined by other information cycle stakeholders in expanding the Internet.

• Given the potential for expanded service, librarians have been early and enthusiastic adopters of Internet technologies.

Internet terms to know

• TCP/IP = Transmission Control Protocol/Internet protocol.

– Standardized communication protocol that allows various kinds of computers to talk to one another on the Internet

– Basis of client/server computing

• Telnet

– Standardized remote protocol for logging in to a server

• FTP = File Transfer Protocol

– Standardized protocol for moving files from one computer to another

Internet terms to know, cont’d.

• World Wide Web (WWW or just “the Web”)

– not synonymous with the Internet, which is made up of many types of electronic resources

– Is an Internet interface

– Based on Hypertext (recall Bush’s “As We May Think, 1945).

– HTTP = HyperText Transfer Protocol

• Standardized protocol that allows transfer of HTML formatted documents from one computer to another on the WWW.

– HTML = HyperText Markup Language

• A (somewhat) standardized series of tags that prepare plain text documents for use as Web pages

Internet terms to know, cont’d.

• Browser : computer program that allows you to access HTML documents.

– Based on HTTP, FTP, Telnet and HTML protocols

Changes observable in librarianship due to information technologies

• A dynamic continuum -- great thing to nemesis• Technology has changed libraries physically

– Extensive wiring – Many computer terminals– Questions of ergonomics and ADA

• Communication and dissemination receive much more emphasis -- a change in process.

Observable changes, cont’d.

• Cost and time issues– Have to balance low cost with quick turnaround expectations

• Electronic reference

• Asynchronous reference

• Global service constituencies

• Leadership opportunities for librarians in policymaking, information literacy, bibliographic instruction, authenticating, archival and preservation issues, etc.

• Changes collection development priorities and processes

Technology issues to think about:

• Preservation

– Data migration

• Don’t know how long digital materials last

• Can’t read without working readers

– Obsolete formats

– WWW is much to large to preserve

• What parts do you preserve and catalog?

• Libraries as physical structures

– Is the role as a social and civic center threatened?

Technology Issues to think about, cont’d.

• Professional/non-professional staff

• Training new and existing librarians

• Outsourcing and resultant turf issues

• Technostress

• New relationships with for-profit entities

• Legal issues

• Relationship between technology and traditional goals and mission

• Collection vs. connection