Science and Technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response. Expelled from individual consciousness by the rush of change, history finds its revenge by stamping the collective unconscious with habits, values, expectations, dreams. The dialectic between past and future will continue to form our lives (Schlesinger, AM 1986)
Have Librarians got so caught up in 'doing' that they have forgotten that they are here to support learning? Our job is to support our learners in their learning. We are not a book deposit. We are not what we think a Library should be. We are what our learners need us to be.
Why does the future generation of learners need to understand the Dewey Decimal system when they will all be reading and using digital content? Are we actually helping people get the information they need (even if it is on Wikipedia) and supporting knowledge creation? People need help understanding formats, platforms, software, web applications and digital rights management, not just how to find a book or a peer reviewed journal article on a topic. My patrons need to know how to live in the real world, not in the Library.
If our learners need a space for study, we provide a space for study. If our learners need textbooks, we provide textbooks. If our learners need advice on appropriate software for their needs, we provide advice on appropriate software for their needs. If our learners need someone to tell them how to hack an epub reader, we tell them how to hack an epub reader.... Don't we? If not, why not?... Particularly if the reason they need to hack the epub reader is to get a pdf version for text analysis. They are not going to share the pdf, or sell it, or plagiarise it. They just want to analyse and create their own, new knowledge from it.
Why are librarians not all committed to copyright reform, when they and their community are unfairly limited by copyright law everyday? What are librarians prepared to do in the fight for access to information for knowledge creation? What about supporting alternative voices to balance the discourse hegemony? What about publication advice, safe data storage? Who is questioning the academic peer review process? Who is gate keeping and who is sharing?
Why are libraries expected to be museums of knowledge? Outdated and rarely used items should be archived, not be kept on ugly shelves in useful public space. This does not mean I advocate for the destruction of books. I advocate for the archiving of everything ever published in state and or private collections, but not in our learners' spaces. Our learners want to pass their course and learn useful skills, not be able to find a long lost tome on the shelves.
I do not wish for the death of the book, merely that we re-look at our purpose, rather than keeping doing what we have always done. The days of 'browsing the shelves' is dead. A small regional uni library cannot support every academic's or librarian's dream for shelves of unused collections, collecting dust. Our importance is in our purpose, not in maintaining our view of ourselves and the "library" of the past.
References
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. 1986, "The Challenge of Change," New York Times Magazine, July 27, 1986. Viewed 19th May 2015, from http://quotes.dictionary.com/Science_and_Technology_revolutionize_our_lives_but_memory
