Katrina
Deliramich
Rise
of Information
In our readings
and books for this class the same topic keeps coming up, information is on the
move and we cannot keep up with the expansion. Some people are referring to the
growth of information as a bad thing and others feel it is good; I am up in the
air about it. What does the growth of information mean to me? How does it
affect me in my everyday life? What will be done to incorporate the new
information?
I tend to use my
library quite often to check out books to read and to do research. It is a
small library, like the librarians in most towns around here. I can’t help but
see that there never seems to be any new books added and I have read most of
the books I am interested in. I realize this is because they have no room to
add more books and I can always search the catalog and find a book somewhere
else, but then I have to go get it or have it sent, and that seems too time
consuming and complicated to me. I would rather just go find my book and leave.
Now that is just about impossible! It is great we have so much information and
different ways and places to access it, but when accessing it is not easy or
convenient I tend to just go elsewhere, like online.
I have asked a few
of my friends and coworkers how they find information and the consensus is that
they all go online. So if people like me are finding online easier then going
through their crowded library shelves and still coming up disappointed, then
where is the information in libraries heading? Will all the shelves and books
be removed and there will just be rows and rows of computers? But what about
the generation that is not able to use the Internet and have no desire to
learn? Will their needs be ignored as more and more of the new technology is
incorporated into the local libraries? Do we just keep expanding libraries
bigger and bigger till all the computers and books that are needed will fit?
If in the 20 or so
years that I have been going to libraries my library expanded so much it needed
to build a new library 3x the size what will happen in 20 years from now? Where
are we going with all the information? They mentioned the Library of Congress
in a few of our readings; I went there a few weeks ago for the first time. It
was an incredible experience and the Jefferson Library is beautiful. I only
spent a few hours there, in one of the three libraries they have and from my
experience I have to say I found it huge and intimidating and I would not even
know where to begin looking for a book! Is that the future for all our small
hometown libraries? Expansions to the size where even attempting to search for
a book is just too hard and complicated that people give up finding
information?
I do not know
where information is going or where it is going to be stored. It is great
people have so many ideas and that other people have ideas and opinions on
those ideas, but somewhere there has to be guidelines instituted or a sorting
system for what will be included in the library. I do not want to call it censorship
but what will happen if every book ever written and every article and journal
goes into the library, there is just no possible way!
I hope the future
of information continues to increase and that a plan is developed to store all
this information in an easy accessible way. I am sure that someone somewhere
will be able to make a plan that will work. Will we all accept it? Probably not
and I am sure it will be imperfect, but in order for the common people to use
all the information available a plan needs to be implemented.
No comments:
Post a Comment