Myths About Librarians and Library: Are Libraries & Librarians Totally Obsolete?

Fiction:

• Google, googling, googlish and googlization saves: Google replaces the information industry, not just librarians and libraries, not just archives and archivists, not just content and content managers, not just information and information managers who are out-side-the-box
• Libraries are just books: Books and much more is at Amazon and Barnes @ 24 X 7 -- no strike, no holidays and no nightmares
• Digital libraries are the Internet @ Free to download for all
• Everything is available on the Internet
• The Internet is free--No fines, no late fees, no membership charges, no fine print
• This is the Age of Internet: Brick and Mortar Libraries are over
• Wiki is the knowledge base, edit, modify, delete, copy, share and click send

Facts:

• Libraries are for use: not just show pieces, nor a touch-me-not type archive or museum. : Libraries are the only place to find Living Experience of the past, exposure to the present and a lead to the future.
• Every book its reader: Libraries and Librarians in educational institutions (school, college, university) directly help in improving Student Test Scores, inculcate thinking outside-the-box, and promote research for the public good.
• Every reader his/her book: Library collections are based on collection development's annual plan and works-well in measuring or finding a Return on Investment (ROI)
• Save the time of the reader. Medium is not the message: Mobile devices are not the end of books or libraries. Libraries bring together medium, message, messenger and the messagees.
• Library is a growing organism: Number of users in any Library is not declining; it's Just more virtual (much more than the physical attendance within the library building). Physical Libraries are continuously adapting to all types of changes, including multiculturalism, multifaith, multilingual, multiracial, multi-location, multidimensional, multimedia and multipurpose.
• Google is good (only, if you love their business). WHEREAS, Libraries are the best (no impulsive shopping here, you can pick a book that you want and that you love)
• Libraries are not based on algorithms! Rather, libraries have thinking, feeling and compassionate brains. 
• The Internet is a mess and much more (they have named it as deep web, surface web, hidden web, black or dark web, etc.). WHEREAS, Libraries are organized, categorized according to your taste-bud
• Live-Wire: Libraries compliment and supplement in society's need for education, inspiration, motivation, entertainment and much more information just-in-time and just-in-case for tragic, comic and what have you scenarios
• Economics: Reducing or closing libraries would directly cut short all types of cultural, social and material development
• Knowledge is power: Information in WIKI is not a substitute. As they say: The wisdom of crowds is untrustworthy. Because WIKI has only the tip of the iceberg, we are not even sure if it is even the tip
• Added Value: Librarians are the irreplaceable counterparts to the Internet / Intranet and any other type of Net

On the same shelf:

• 5 Reasons Librarians are Better than Search Engines
  
• 33 reasons librarians rule; Super Bowl media; Homeless YouTube; Google ‘does no evil’ on pre-roll
  
• 16 Reasons Why Libraries and Librarians are Still Extremely Important
  
• Top Ten Reasons Libraries Are Still Important
  
• 5 Reasons Librarians Are the Future of Ed Tech
  
• Top Ten Reasons Libraries Fail! Foresight is not enough
  
• Banned Library: 5 Reasons Libraries Should Not Use Ebooks
  
• 5 Reasons Libraries ROCK
  
• 9 Reasons Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries
  
• Some Reasons Libraries Wouldn't be Founded « Annoyed Librarian
  
• Libraries on the Web – Should They Strive to Become New Search Engines?  InTechWeb Blog
  
• Libraries Play a Key Role in Setting Up and Managing Open Repositories 
  InTechWeb Blog
  
• To Know the Library Is To Love the Library -- But Who Knows the Library? huffingtonpost.com
  
• We still need libraries in the digital age, Ian Clark, guardian.co.uk,
  
• The Most Amazing Libraries of the world (Picture Gallery, in 2 parts)  huffingtonpost.com
• Building community — one vibrant library at a time, By Glen Pearson, Special to QMI Agency -- London, Ontario
  
• 61 Non-Librarian Jobs for LIS Grads
• To a Librarian Who Wants to Write - Outside the Box
• Shifting Careers - Outside The Box Interactions

The emerging role of the library within an information-based global economy

Libraries in a broad sense (whose role is about physical presence, and intellectual content facilitators) are automated and provide access to print and electronic resources, both in the east or the west, are mostly using similar software platforms (irrespective of a function: acquisition, storage, processing), as well similar retrieval solutions (be it standalone pc, integrated computers or web-based solutions), etc..

One may ask, and the answers are not here:

how far this globalization (spirit of global village), is effecting the local (spirit of sustaining the local needs), and vice verse???

If the global village is meant to universal ubiquitous information access to so many bibliographic references / full-text resources, is only between the haves (developed world), or includes all the have-not's (developing, under-developed and not so developed world)? See also: Ethics of access: Globalization, feminism and information society by Gillian Youngs, Journal of Global Ethics, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2005

What standards, if any, are being developed / applied for effective and efficient service delivery

how this virtual library is being taken-over, from the perspective of a traditional library (LIS) by other competing stakeholders (IM, KM, CM, IT, etc.)

What’s really driving & / or intensifying the competitive pressures on the traditional library?

What other long-term options &/or opportunities are available for libraries?

What needs to be done today to change course and restore the image-cum-brand of the library-that-has-to-be?

Reading now:
Globalisation in academic libraries: A reflective comparison of academic libraries at Cork, Ireland, and Chihuahua, Mexico,
McCarthy, James P; Javier Tarango Ortiz. Library Management31. 7 (2010): 505-520

This paper attempts to compare two academic libraries in very different parts of the world. It aims to look at the influences which their local origins have had on them as well as the commonality which the internationalisation of the library profession has brought on them. The paper seeks inferences about the impact of globalisation on the world of academic librarianship. It looks at commonality of experience past, present and future. The process of investigation was to pose a number of questions regarding what academic libraries are, their role in academic landscapes, the impact of globalising technologies and the future of the book. The findings are that there is a commonality of experience and that modern library technologies have changed the nature of professional practice significantly in recent decades; that indigenous traditions of practice at local level are being replaced by an integration of internationally shared experience. The paper should interest those researching the future of academic libraries, comparative developments in academic libraries worldwide, the future of repository storage in the face of digitisation and the future of academic landscapes.

>>James P. McCarthy can be contacted at: jp.mccarthy@ucc.ie, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
>>Javier Tarango Ortiz, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico

On the same shelf:

The Development of Virtual Libraries in Commonwealth Libraries in Commonwealth Libraries in Australia, Amanda Magnussen

A New Era of Education Reform: Preparing All Students for Success in College, Career and Life, click here or here

The Community Library in Our Emerging Knowledge Economy

The disappearing virtual library, Christopher Kelty

AskERIC and the virtual library: lessons for emerging digital libraries, R. David Lanke

Credibility on the internet: shifting from authority to reliability, R. David Lankes

Mess, John A. “I Want An Expert, Not A Librarian”: Expert Advisory Services, Library Reference, And Knowledge Economics On The Internet. Internet Reference Services Quarterly 6.1 (2001): 49-67.

Steal this book? Don't bother, By Candace Lombardi, CNET News

Kaufman, Paula. "It's Not Your Parents' Library Anymore: Challenges And Opportunities In The New Webs Of Complexity." Journal Of Library Administration 46.1 (2007): 5-26.

The 21st century holds the promise of a modern Renaissance in which traditional research library collections and services collide with the promises and realities of digital information and knowledge management. The most intriguing challenges and opportunities for research libraries center on the juxtaposition between the traditional library and digital information and knowledge management, with resultant webs of complexity. This paper examines these challenges and opportunities and raises questions of values and principles, missions and strategies, content and copyright, and methods and ethics. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Beinhart, Larry. The Librarian. NY: Nation Books, 2004, 72.

Silicon, Carbon, Culture: Combining Codes Through the Arts, Humanities, and
Technology: Final Report of the Silicon, Carbon, Culture Initiative. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.

Lougee, Wendy Pradt. Diffuse Libraries: Emergent Roles for the Research Library
in the Digital Age. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources,
2002.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human
Intelligence. NY: Viking, 1999.

Murray, Janet H. “The Exhilaration of Access.” Threshold, Winter 2004.

Digital Information and Knowledge Management: New Opportunities for Research Libraries (Journal of Library Administration), Sul H. Lee

The impact of Internet on scientific traditional knowledge Ghobrial, R.A.;
Documentation & Inf. Centre, Khartown, Sudan, Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 International Conference on Issue Date: 19-23 April 2004

Visions for Fundamental Change in Libraries and Librarianship for Asia Pacific

Googlization of Libraries: Debunking the Internet Godzilla Myth
The Second Follett Lecture, Graduate School of Library and Information Science,
Dominican University, 15 February 2006, Edward J. Valauskas -- reproduced in World Libraries Volume 19, Numbers 1 & 2, February 2012

Haugen, Betty (2005) "The Impact of Globalization on Law Libraries," International Journal of Legal Information: Vol. 33: Iss. 3, Article 8.

"Legal Information Management in a Global and Digital Age: Revolution and Tradition" cited in Impact of Globalization on International and Foreign Law Information

The Impact of Globalization on Libraries and the Role of IFLA, Claudia Lux
SILF 2006, powerpoint

The Impact of Globalization on Library Management and Marketing, by Su, R. Yang, Q., IFLA PUBLICATIONS, 2007, VOL 125, pages 293-302

Google’s Convergence Re-visited

Should librarians be considered professionals?

The MLS Project: An Assessment After Sixty Years by Boyd Keith Swigger

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Thought for the day: We’re in the business of giving away knowledge. For free. Come in, please come in, and take some knowledge for free, no, no limit, keep going, gorge on it if you want, no, it’s not a trick, a come on, a free sample and then we’ll bill you later, or we’ll paper your head with banners and pop-ups. Librarians don’t have a lot of status and we don’t make a lot of money, more than poets, but not so much, say, as your more successful panhandlers, so our ideals are important to us and the love of books and the love of knowledge and the love of truth and free information and letting people discover things for themselves . . . –Larry Beinhart, The Librarian

Do We Still Need Libraries? December 28, 2012, The New York Times -- Debaters: a) Failing to Close the ‘Digital Divide’, Susan Crawford; b) More Relevant Than Ever, Luis Herrera; c) It’s Not Just Story Time and Bookmobiles, Buffy J. Hamilton; d) For Gathering and for Solitude, Matthew Battles,

Libraries Try to Update the Bookstore Model / Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close, By KAREN ANN CULLOTTA, December 27, 2012 NYTimes.com