Modern society is preeminently governed by technology: information technology that emphasizes automation and computerized information services. The early uses of computers were thought to be quite limited, employed for such specialized activities as census taking and specific scientific applications. They have come a long way. Currently, some see computers and information technology as the panacea for all of society's evils, believing that everyone must be ready to roll down the Internet highway, even if no one seems to know where it will lead. On a great and exciting joy ride, if you read between the lines. They call this explosion of bits and bytes in cyberspace progress, and have a 'more is better' ideology.
There are others, such as Frank Webster, who wonder what kinds of messages are being heralded in this perpetual blitz of information. Is it knowledge that will help to slow the destruction of the Brazilian Rainforest, wipe out hunger and disease, or is it more along the lines of how to link your children with others to play Quake online, or a way to find out what the most popular soap opera stars eat for dinner? Has the explosion in information and computer technology actually made those who are wired-in an exceptionally thoughtful or intellectually-advanced group in society today?
In his book Theories of the Information Society, Frank Webster lays out the reasons for his skeptical attitude towards the notion of an information society. He has many convincing arguments, but for the purposes of this essay, only the most crucial for libraries will be examined and that is his belief that the quantitative measure of information should not be equated with qualitative worth (Webster 1995,13). There is a great deal of information flowing and floating in society today, incorporating both the important and relevant, and also the inconsequential. What Webster is saying is that both kinds should not be considered equal, because by doing so, "these qualitative issues are laid aside as information is homogenized and made amenable to numbering" (Webster 1995,26).
Frank Webster is not standing alone. There are others here among us who worry that a technological force is blurring the distinctions between reality and escapism, knowledge and details, selling a prepackaged vision of what information technology can do for quality of life, and the stark consequences of leaving your family unwired. How can children learn without computers at home and school, bombarding them with huge amounts of information? How can they learn to read without Sesame Street's latest software? As a future librarian, the answer would be from books, which have always been the impetus for education, imagination, and wonderment. In the War of the Worlds, Mark Slouka warns us not to forget that reading, writing, and imagination existed long before the arrival of the microchip and the fiber-optic cable (Slouka 1995,144). This paper will look briefly at how the ideology of electronic sources and the Internet will affect the future of libraries and how librarians do their jobs.
Throughout the history of the world, libraries have been important institutions for the cultivation and preservation of humanity. Libraries are the repositories for humanity's knowledge; they are our past, our present, and our future. As futurist Paul Saffo points out, librarians originally were responsible for collecting information that was scarce, to make it available to a greater number of people (Saffo 1995,294). He goes on to say that "librarians were sort of mad information hoarders, who were hoarding in the public interest" (Saffo 1995,295), but that is no longer a realistic goal with the explosion in information and the shrinking budgets of libraries.
Libraries have arrived at a critical point in their history, and they must choose to view the quality of the information that is bombarding society as more important than providing everything that is available. Should they have to close reading rooms, and reduce their book budgets to buy more computers (Stoll 1995,177) while allowing students to access e-mail and chat rooms in academic libraries, especially when resources are so limited? It is information, information that is not being distinguished from knowledge, so it is allowed to continue, and simply because it was decided that digitized bits of data would be called information, no matter what it is relaying (Rozak 1986,14). Historically the word information was most often used to denote knowledge, now it shuns semantics and represents anything that can be coded into a series of zeros and ones (Rozak 1986,13). The differences in meaning have become blurred -- "the word comes to have a vast generality, but at a price; the meaning of things communicated comes to be leveled, and so too the value" (Rozak 1986,14).
A fine example of this phenomenon was written by Mark Slouka when he describes Ellie Frame, a young child appearing in an IBM print ad. The message is that if she had the right computer, with television capabilities, she could look at some of the greatest art pieces the world has known, surf for historically significant landmarks like the Great Wall of China, and be back in time to watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Slouka 1995,146). Slouka's point is a powerful one because it shows how easy it is to level the important things in life and reduce their value in one sweeping, and thoughtless motion. He is not saying that the sitcom should not be on television, but that there is no longer the proper qualitative measure put on the 'wonders of the world'. All technology comes with a price tag attached, and information technology's can be quite high because young children are initiated and it is so heavily involved with the way schools and parents educate their children. Slouka believes that the price is too high to pay for the transformation of children into zombies, involving them in a virtual type of reality when they are connected (Slouka 1995,147).
Langdon Winner calls it "the absent mind," which is willing to believe the hype advertised by private moneymaking industries which say they really care about inspiring education and bringing democratic decision-making back where it belongs, in the hands of the people (Winner 1986,115-117). All through information technology! Imbedded in Webster's argument and stated in Winner's is the propaganda that equates "sheer supply of information with an educated ability to gain knowledge and act effectively on it" (Winner 1986,108). Coupled with this is the wrong impression that anyone at all can access quality information if they are connected to electronic resources.
As libraries continue to automate systems such as cataloguing and find money for the newest databases as they lay off real people, the problems will intensify. Librarians have been trained to search out the best information available on any given subject area, and know when to use print sources. Even if there was an Internet-connected computer for every patron entering a library, very few could search the databases for the information they need. They will require a specially trained human intermediary to sift through and filter out the nonsense; they will need a librarian. People need assistance to retrieve quality information, so libraries need to be careful that the day won't come when a few lone librarians are surrounded by hardware and software linked to trillions of bits and bytes of every kind. As Clifford Stoll has so eloquently put it:
I suspect computers will deviously chew away at libraries from the inside. They'll eat up book budgets and require librarians that are more comfortable with computers than with children and scholars. Libraries will become adept at supplying the public with fast, low-quality information. The result won't be a library without books -- it'll be a library without value (Stoll 1995,214).
What many experienced librarians are asking is how much information will ever be enough? Anyone roving the stacks of any decent sized library is in awe of all the knowledge that surrounds them, and a little annoyed by the realization that a lifetime is not long enough to consume all the ideas and lessons that can be found within the covers. With a functional illiteracy rate hovering around 24%, the Canadian government should concentrate more of its attention and finances in reducing this statistic, helping people to think for themselves, and to become active not passive when it comes to information (Rennie 1995). One way would be to teach children and adults the joys of reading, advocate well-stocked libraries, and instead of closing libraries, open new ones where there is a community need (Winner 1986,109). As librarians, it is possible that the distinctions will also blur for us, and a time will come when sight has been lost of what really constitutes the beauty of knowledge and its liberating effects.
As Webster points out, society must look at the meaning behind the messages to decide if they have sustenance, and examine if there is a semantic measure that can fundamentally transform society (Webster 1995,27). If the world is not drastically different with the amount of information that is out there, and if it is not making society better, consumers and library administrators should not buy into the mentality lock, stock, and barrel. One of Webster's greatest concerns is that society will settle for the quantitative, changing our lives to adapt to a revolution that is helping unemployment lines to lengthen, while making several companies hugely successful.
For librarians and their administrators, the concerns are obvious. They cannot continue to pay the exorbitant prices for computerized technology, budget for very expensive upgrading and maintenance costs, as well as keeping the latest books on the shelves and have competent staff to answer questions and make suggestions. One of the biggest problems is that there is never an end to the buying cycle once a library gets heavily involved with information technology. Obsolescence of electronic technology demands that money will continually be spent. Even library schools currently recommend as many technology oriented courses as possible for their students so they will be prepared to handle the machines and cope with the databases. Whatever happened to learning how to be knowledgeable, inspiring, learned, and communicative? Libraries have to realize that they cannot be all things to all people. Tim Horton's does well because it specializes in a couple of different commodities, the same with Bagel Bagel. Libraries need to follow suit. Walt Crawford has some words of wisdom on the introduction of digital information:
Libraries have never been the sole, or even the primary source of information for people. Good libraries serve many niches, but they never served as universal sources, and they never will ... by and large, the new compliments the old. Print did not destroy the oral tradition, radio did not destroy newspapers. Television changed radio, newspapers, and movies -- but didn't destroy any of them (Crawford 1993,11).
Librarians need to take this advice, and try to do the best job they can within the framework with which they began. Specialize in reference information services and teaching the community about how libraries are set up and how to look for things themselves. Librarians, by and large, were delighted to rid themselves of the card catalogues, but then most professional librarian cataloguers disappeared, only to be replaced by computers and paraprofessionals. Now there are virtual reference librarians on the Net to satisfy all of your questions. What is the next step? Do the information technologists envision libraries without walls, staffed with an expert system? Do librarians? As Blake Harris points out, "our view of the future affects the present as surely as do our impressions of the past or the more tangible residues of past actions" (Harris 1996). People have never before looked at information the way they do now, as a priority, with "a cultlike following" (Rozak 1986,30). Theodore Rozak says that as long as society is willing to buy into the sensationalism, this quasi-information technology will continue to be one more thing to have to keep up with the Jones (Rozak 1986,30). Since much of this new information has not been substantiated as anything but bits and bytes, librarians should concentrate their time and resources on old-fashioned librarianship, with some digitization thrown in. They need to pick one, will it be quality or quantity?
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