Blog #6
Library is a building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, and sometimes films and recorded music for people to read or borrow.
Library is a building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, and sometimes films and recorded music for people to read or borrow.
In a traditional sense, a Library is a large collection of books and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Libraries give classifiable knowledge.
The popularity of electronic book readers and the internet for cheap materials have had people predicting the demise of Libraries.
Libraries have not given up yet, Libraries have found ways in the digital age by embracing technology that allows people to read online and on handheld devices like iPad, also providing free download reading materials, audiobooks and music.
Libraries try to always provide the newest, most modern materials to its patrons.
Libraries are trying their best to upgrade themselves, and better serve the people, but do you think they are satisfying our digital community? Watch this video and judge for yourself.
This is how most of our students today see and use the Library.
Personally, I will not make a trip to the Library, if I can access all the information I need in the comfort of my home. Johnson, (2002), agues that “Real libraries have masses of data that will take decades, if at all, to be made available on the Internet. Real libraries have the bonus of trained staff to help you find what you seek, unlike most search engines, which bombard you with unnecessary extra and unwanted or useless data that happened to fit the parameters you set. Despairingly, thousands think this new resource must be better than a library, and waste time and bandwidth on posting questions, or searching the web, for information which their nearest public library can produce in short order.”
Do I agree with Johnson? No, while libraries are wonderful resources for a variety of reference materials, they do have a few limitations. First of all libraries are not usually open 24 hours a day seven days a week(in our digital 24/7 world?). This means that your access to the research materials is limited to the hours of operation of the library. Secondly, the books in a library can be somewhat out-of-date, particularly in smaller libraries. Finally, libraries can be crowded and access to reference materials, computers and other pieces of equipment can be limited by the number of people who also need to use those items.
So then, do we agree to the fact that, Libraries are at risk or just loosing their traditional values?
References
Herkovic, A. C., Keller, M.A & Reich, V.A. (2003) What is a library anymore,anyway? First Monday, volume 8, number 5 (May 2003)
Johnson. G, (2002) THE WEB VERSUS THE LIBRARY
I love libraries and I think it is mostly because of the environment. When in a library, you are surrounded by books filled with greatness along with people who are also just as academically inclined. In college, it seemed to be the only place I could study uninterrupted, quietly, and calmly. And, this is most likely weird, but I love the smell of libraries, the smell of old books. Libraries just have a comfortable and safe environment to all that enter.
ReplyDeleteThe digital age has definitely flooded the libraries. I will chose a library over the raw Internet any day. At libraries, they do not only have their tangible books, but they also have their digital (intangible) database of books. If they don’t have it, the library can direct you where to find or get ahold of the information you are looking for. Librarians, they know what they are talking about and are able to guide all your questions so you aren’t so lost or overwhelmed. The Internet does not have that; possibly AskJeeves.com was faint attempt to that, but even then, hundreds of “answers” would appear for personal filtering.
I think that future libraries will not look or be filled like a traditional library. Libraries will soon have a major shift with books becoming collectors items at auction or in museums. The modern library will be a hall full of the whurring noise from computers and databases; the smell would be gone. Librarians will become Research Technicians as they help users navigate the databases and the Internet while having other IT knowledge. Because of this, the environment that I love will change slightly, but will still be filled with uninterrupted, quiet, and calm greatness.