The Wells model suggests that knowledge is made up of "facts" which librarians are able to put into categories (as a library classification does) so that they can be retrieved by or for users. Google also implies that the web is made up of "facts", i.e. web pages, though it doesn't categorise them.
But knowledge is actually more complicated than that. "Facts" are of varying degrees of reliability. Some facts are more general versions of other facts, and some facts contradict or supersede other facts. Librarians may be able to "preserve" - at least the artefacts - but are they able to "transform, structure and analyse"? Probably only a few who work in specialised areas. It sounds more like what expert review writers (usually academics) try to do, and which is also an undervalued job.
Andrew Buxton
IDS, Brighton, UK
-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 26 September 2008 15:37
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Subject: a future bereft of the custodians of knowledge? (THE article)
It's Friday afternoon, and if you are seeking weekend reading, you might want to check out "The shape of things to come" from this week's Times Higher Education in which Tara Brabazon "ponders a future bereft of the custodians of knowledge":
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=403729
As always, Tara gives us great sound bites: "Librarians are the custodians of forms and institutions, transforming a platform for information into the foundation for learning".
She concludes: "As we think about the future during our own troubled times - scarred, like [H.G.]Wells', by war and financial turmoil - we can campaign for new technology or older technology. We can Google more information. But there is another option: to support the one profession that can preserve and transform, structure and analyse, speak and remember".
Alison
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Alison McNab
LIS Co-ordinator, Higher Education Academy - Information and Computer Sciences
Email: [log in to unmask]
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