Re: One library or many?

["David P. Dillard" <jwne@astro.ocis.temple.edu>]

The post by Heather Morrison is excellent.  It is not just the library
that is obsolete but the whole structure of universities according to some
noted in an article that is fortunately taking the opposing point of view.

Wikipedia 'To Make Universities Obsolete'
By Andrew Orlowski
Published Tuesday 7th September 2004 16:33 GMT
The Register
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/07/khmer_rouge_in_daipers/>

"Old World is under attack. The authority of the book, authority of the
journalist, authority of the teacher, is under direct assault by Wikipedia
and other online efforts," claims the poster, 'Stephen'.

"The education system its self [sic] will come into question eventually.
Universities are formed around libraries and libraries are physical things
that require physical campuses. Take away the library, provide full access
to every book ever writen [sic] online, imagine the consequences."

<snip>

A future where publishers throw everything they have online for free is
then described, although the question of why these professional
researchers should throw away their livelihoods away in such a fashion
isn't explored. But let's not allow facts to spoil this titanic struggle
for the future of learning.

--------------------------------------

The complete article may be read at the URL above.

Indeed, while the internet does contain a huge collection of valuable
resources on most subjects under the sun, these resources of great
importance cohabit with websites that do much less commendable things.
Children and adolescents can learn the wrong kinds of lessons from
exceedingly cleverly written hate sites that propagandize with the intent
of converting young minds to the bigotry expressed on the site. Far worse
can happen to children and adolescents exploring the internet without
extensive guidance.

From:  "David P. Dillard" <jwne@astro.ocis.temple.edu>
Date:  Tue Aug 31, 2004  1:56 pm
Subject:  CHILDREN: MISSING ABUSED MURDERED AND EXPLOITED : CHILDREN:
INTERNET: Kacie Ren Woody
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/1559>

Contrasted to this booby trapped environment, the databases and
aggregation resources available from various databanks and related
services are very content controlled environents covering specified groups
of periodicals, possibly books and other documents, and that is the extent
of a specific database.  Furthermore databases permit far more controlled
and defined searching capabilities that teach much more to students
regarding how to find information than is possible using the one step and
out, keep it simple limitations of internet search engines.

One major problem that minimizes the use of databases by elementary and
secondary school students is that many teachers at this level do not know
much, if anything, about how to construct searches in databases and they
are also unaware in all too many cases that public libraries in many
states provide access to a generous and varying (depending on what each
state leases for libraries in the state) collection of database tools. If
the teachers and schools are not promoting the free access to these tools
that library card holders in a state or city have access to, it is
unlikely that students will learn about these tools some other way. Many
K-12 teachers have not and in many cases refuse to learn how to use
computers and the internet, let alone develop any level of expertise in
the use of databases.

This is in my opinion also a problem in the boundaries of what people call
the digital divide.  The focus is to get people computers or access to
public computers and a way to use the internet.  These are laudable goals.
They do not go far enough.  A digital divide should continue to be in
place for those who have not learned about, how to use at some level and
have access to a collection of databases.  Especially since the era of
full text databases has developed and since there are a number of free
databases online like ERIC, Medline, and RedLightGreen, this extension of
the territorial boundaries of the digital divide seems to be important if
education is to be one result of the elimination of the digital divide.
Unless people are taught to learn and to evaluate sources and to find the
quality resources on the internet and in databases, giving computer access
and internet access to people will be somewhat less than meaningful and
useful to the furtherance of their educational and career qualifications
and knowledge.


Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@astro.temple.edu
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