Hello everyone,
I am still thinking on the thread about the future of libraries. My perspective on the new thread is that it reinforces the idea the local and material library might disappear faster than I estimated two days ago. That is why I prefer to talk about these issues on the new thread. Most of the relevant information is here, although the initial topic is there.
What I hear on this thread is that many functions that are secondary to knowledge retrieval might go completely online pretty soon. We talked a lot about the scientific discussions and community building on library grounds. If they moves to the internet, one more library function is globalized. I mean it will go to the global online library or another institution.
The DRS list provides many of us with a TIG group that otherwise we cannot develop in our universities and even at our continental conferences simply because we cannot gather a critical mass of people and discussants. There are bit more than 3,000 discussants on this list and no more than 50 people that work/participate actively. You can see the proportion. Also, none of the active participants are interested in my main area of interest--the social aspects of facilities programming/planning.
Even if we talk about the emotional benefits of the library as a facility and a meeting ground, we can see that there are similar, yet different emotional benefits of the global meeting place (online).
So, for me, the question about the future of the library is still open, yet clear in general terms. What I don't see clearly at this time is the design of the TRANSITION in a productive, efficient, and humane way. The difficulty in designing the transition comes from the unreliable nature of futuring. We don't know how fast to move; we don't know when different technologies will be available and financially feasible; will the society put together financing for a global project; will people agree on one global library model or they will need several different global entities, just like we need different types of social media and discussion lists; would people prefer to have competing models in order to understand which one is better, like the competition between Apple and Microsoft hardware and software; What will happen with emerging and then disappearing global library projects that involve thousands of well-educated employees; how to accommodate the redundant employees as human beings and as exceptional assets for society; and so forth.
In addition, wow will people use virtual reality and augmented reality? We already have augmented reality corporate meeting places/rooms although these are still constructed of clumsily patched pieces of existing technology. Such augmented reality meetings are feasible today even for small organizations.
Best wishes,
Lubomir
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gunnar Swanson
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2017 1:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Future of the University Library, The future of Journals, and Bush's "Memex"
> On Dec 9, 2017, at 12:55 PM, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> How do we know which comments are worthwhile? that's the curation and
> authority problem.
The internet forum "Plastic" used a system of karma points. (I think Slashdot did something similar but I never read it.) Plastic was a general reposting of news and the like. If you made comments found to be good by those with karma points, you were given some points. You could then rate posts. If I remember correctly, it cost one point to up-rate a post and two points to downrate a post. I think maybe you lost points if you didn’t rate posts so you couldn’t horde your karma.
(As a psychologist, Don might be able to give us insight into why people would horde something that is only of value if it’s used but the phenomenon is common with political power on many different levels.)
A reader could then set limits—I only want to see posts with a rating of three or above. That would mean they wouldn’t see anything that was two, one, or negative one.
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
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1901 East 6th Street
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