Idaho Commission for Libraries

Here is an article recently published on the Red Herring site (from the April 10th print issue) — The Future of the Internet: in a decade, the Net will dig deeper into our lives*.

Paul Dirac shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger in 1933 for his work in the mathematics of quantum mechanics. No, I’m not going to bore you with the math and I’ll try to keep this simple (so that I understand it too).

After the discovery of the positron in 1932 (confirming Dirac’s prediction in 1928), Dirac postulated (among many other things) that positrons are noticed because they are the ABSENCE of an electron. This can be compared to a fish, which doesn’t notice the water but does notice the bubbles (the absence of water).

We live in a sea of information and, like the fish, don’t notice it (and like the fish we use it without noticing it). We take notice of information only 1) in its absence and 2) when it disagrees with our preconceptions.

Read this post from A Wandering Eyre. Jane talks of her Freshman Comp class learning to use the library. Asked to come up with synonyms for “technology,” they surprised her:

“These students, about 8 years younger than myself, think of what they do with technology as opposed to the object of technology. Their attitudes are completely different than what I expected.”

When I returned to work, there was this e-mail waiting for me. It seems to be related just to library architecture, but ends up talking about the future of libraries. I enjoyed the article, and thought you might, too… Beth Hill, U of I, Moscow

THE OBSERVER
Architect of learning
The reinvention of the college library

By Sam Allis, Globe Columnist | July 31, 2005

Good architects are a treat to talk to because they speak the language of
design — a tongue we rarely hear. Developers and contractors traffic in
their own argot and, as a general rule, pursue the vocabulary of design with
the fluency of a Serbian speaking Sanskrit.

When I got home from Boise last night, I checked my email and found a message about an interesting post on what constitutes a library at the blog Sivacracy.net :

“The Madisonian Take on Libraries”
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/001875.html

There are some very interesting ideas noted there — gives us more food for thought to add to our discussions at the Think Tank.

Enjoy.

Samantha

We as librarians — regardless of our type of library — hold knowledge in trust. Library school (at least mine!) said that we exist to meet the educational, recreational, and informational needs of our users. To do this, we assume a hubris that ranks right up there with the best in Greek tragedy: we confront and attempt to organize for use all human knowledge.
…………

Information is abundant; wisdom is rare. Should we be attempting to provide keys to wisdom as well as information?
……………..

Video on demand is one of the “coming things.” Do you supposed that a “library on demand” is also possible?
…………….

This will be my last attempt at blogging before the conference. I realize I missed the boat by not responding regularly to what others had to say like Cayce does with Parkaboy in William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. But, I do look forward to meeting all the characters in our drama face-to-face.

I also finished The Age of Spiritual Machines, Good to Great and I’m working on Tomorrow Now along with many other documents and those in OCLC’s 2003 Environmental Scan. I bounced his writing about genetics off on an expert in the industry and had an enlightening conversation. It is hard to believe we will actually meet this author. It is an incredible opportunity.

Below is an article from the July 31st Boston Globe:
The Architect of Learning: The reinvention of the college library

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/07/31/architec...

Below is a quote from Geoffrey Freeman in the article:
‘’There are the different mediums — paper, digital, video. How do I combine these different pieces of information?” he asks. ‘’Today’s library is where people challenge the information they get. It’s a real cultural difference. Students don’t care if it’s a technology or content question, so the new demands on a library are tremendous. The biggest challenge in any of these facilities is how to integrate technology and knowledge. The goal is one-stop shopping.”

Good golly! I haven’t been immersed in directed reading and thinking like this since library school. Do you think things will get so intense we’ll have people’s heads exploding like cherry bomb stuffed pumpkins?
One intellectual trail leads to another. I’m preparing for the future by reading the past…suggested reading leads back to McLuhan, McLuhan bridges over to de Chardin; I’m not going any farther back than Augustine.
This stuff is so heady that I am really hoping we can get outside in Boise to avoid the pressure cooker syndrome (and avoid those splattered pumpkins).
We’ll be in a place that is close to some fine natural beauty. The river should be part of this conversation.

This will be quick, since I’m on a public computer at PNLA in Sitka.

Technology is not, and cannot, be the savior and solution for the future.

Technology is a tool and nothing more. And this comes from someone who was a System Administrator for 10+ years.

Used well, technology, like fire, becomes a powerful force which will assist us in getting information and recreation to our users. But if it is viewed as a solution in itself it will cause us to crash and burn — and we will deserve to do so because we couldn’t tell the difference between the hammer and the house we were building.