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Libraries in the Digital Age
By Liz Bulkley on Thursday, March 1, 2007.
Not long ago, libraries were the first place people went when they needed to look something up. Obviously, the internet has changed all that -- Now people usually turn to the web for their information needs. But for some reason, Libraries and all their resources have remained mostly absent from the online world. We'll find out what some people are trying to do to change that.
We'll talk with Casey Bisson and Lichen Rancourt. They're working on a new program called Scriblio that will help libraries create a stronger online presence.
Casey Bisson is an information architect for Plymouth State University.
Lichen Rancourt is a Web Developer at the University of New Hampshire Library.
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Sometime in the early 80s I read the opinion--the author and source of which I cannot recall--that the invention of the microprocessor would have an impact on mankind like that of movable type. If anything, that was an understatement of how technologies based on that invention—the PC and the Internet among others—have revolutionized the collection and exchange of information. Cheap, mass printed books forever changed the role of the library as a repository of priceless scrolls open to a very select few into that of a research institution available, if not to the masses, then at least to the educated. The Internet is rapidly making the concept of the library as a bricks-and-mortar institution obsolete. But it is not difficult to see why libraries are in trouble in the information age when the Web developer at the UNH library cites toys for children and help with prom makeup as reasons why they are still relevant. To survive, community and University libraries must evolve into portals to the vast amount of information available through Internet. And if they wish to be truly part of the information revolution perhaps they might find a way to address two critical issues raised by the virtual library of the Internet--data validity and the protection of intellectual property—rather than seeking to become day-care centers.