Session Number
07
Description
In submitting a proposed paper for this conference I made four definitive statements:
- The library is positioned at the hub or cross-over point of three network levels: the library network, the University LAN and WANs/VANs.
- There is a perfect marriage between the library and networks: the satisfaction of mutual need. Academic networks need the services the libraries can deliver as much as the library needs network services.
- The metamorphoses of the traditional 'computer services' function to the management of networks and networks services will justify the amalgamation of academic library and computer services as the network becomes the source of information and documents. The "cataloguing" of network services will become of great importance as the range and quantity of materials and services multiplies.
- The combined resources of the library network, the university LAN and WANs/VANs can be presented as a virtual multi-format multimedia library image to the user.
I now feel that the first of these statements, the library as "hub" of the network universe, would better be expressed as a question.
From the perspective of those who work in libraries the perception of the library as hub or center is an understandable but dangerous one . To date, networks and the services they support have largely been used by libraries in support of their operations: resource sharing (bibliographical records from utilities) and reference/information services (online databases). In this context , the library certainly is a hub, a point to which all communications roads return.
The danger, arises from the fact that networks will increasingly become major sources of library materials, of documents of all types, whose target will be the individual user as much as the library. In this emerging, multidimensional universe, any concept of centrality is purely subjective, based on the perception of the individual interacting with the network at any one time. John Sack's classic distinction between the Ptolemaic and Copernican perceptions of respectively the supplier and the user of information services is particularly relevant here.[l]
The Ptolemaic view sees the library or other information service at the center of the universe, a body of such power and consequence that those who require its services cluster around it and act according to its laws . However, the reality is that individuals will follow their own guidelines in seeking information, very often following the line of least resistance rather than what we would see as the "correct" IR methodology.
The development of networks as sourees of documents rather than guides to their location has revolutionary implications for libraries in terms of the function and design of the services they provide and, by extension, for librarians in terms of orientation, role and skills, education and training.
In this paper I will argue that the library has the capacity to become the subjective or perceived hub on an information and documentation rich network environment, if some major challenges can be met.
The Library as Hub of the Network Universe
In submitting a proposed paper for this conference I made four definitive statements:
- The library is positioned at the hub or cross-over point of three network levels: the library network, the University LAN and WANs/VANs.
- There is a perfect marriage between the library and networks: the satisfaction of mutual need. Academic networks need the services the libraries can deliver as much as the library needs network services.
- The metamorphoses of the traditional 'computer services' function to the management of networks and networks services will justify the amalgamation of academic library and computer services as the network becomes the source of information and documents. The "cataloguing" of network services will become of great importance as the range and quantity of materials and services multiplies.
- The combined resources of the library network, the university LAN and WANs/VANs can be presented as a virtual multi-format multimedia library image to the user.
I now feel that the first of these statements, the library as "hub" of the network universe, would better be expressed as a question.
From the perspective of those who work in libraries the perception of the library as hub or center is an understandable but dangerous one . To date, networks and the services they support have largely been used by libraries in support of their operations: resource sharing (bibliographical records from utilities) and reference/information services (online databases). In this context , the library certainly is a hub, a point to which all communications roads return.
The danger, arises from the fact that networks will increasingly become major sources of library materials, of documents of all types, whose target will be the individual user as much as the library. In this emerging, multidimensional universe, any concept of centrality is purely subjective, based on the perception of the individual interacting with the network at any one time. John Sack's classic distinction between the Ptolemaic and Copernican perceptions of respectively the supplier and the user of information services is particularly relevant here.[l]
The Ptolemaic view sees the library or other information service at the center of the universe, a body of such power and consequence that those who require its services cluster around it and act according to its laws . However, the reality is that individuals will follow their own guidelines in seeking information, very often following the line of least resistance rather than what we would see as the "correct" IR methodology.
The development of networks as sourees of documents rather than guides to their location has revolutionary implications for libraries in terms of the function and design of the services they provide and, by extension, for librarians in terms of orientation, role and skills, education and training.
In this paper I will argue that the library has the capacity to become the subjective or perceived hub on an information and documentation rich network environment, if some major challenges can be met.