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Taking a quick lunch break to consider the “essence of a library” discussion… What services do libraries provide, how are they changed online, and when is something a library or not a library?

I can think of at least a few “information institutions” that are involved with information and communities: archives, libraries, and museums. We can further subdivide these types- for example, academic libraries, school libraries, special libraries, public libraries, etc. So, first off- what are the distinctions between the broader institutions? Why do we believe they’re necessary? Do the distinctions make sense when working in a digital environment?

Focusing on libraries- what are some commonalities for these types of libraries?
-A formally organized institution that provides information-related services to a defined community
-These services are generally provided by a professional and/or paraprofessional staff. ALA differentiates between a library and other information centers based on the presence of a librarian- I’m not sure if they still do, but it would make sense to me that they do.
-Community space (noted on derivative works – I think we can consider this type of space a service, maybe?)
-More?

Do I need to further differentiate between digital libraries and other types of libraries? I haven’t before.

I’ll throw out some terms that I believe may be related to a library’s services:

Selection, Collection, Organization (Cataloging, Indexing, etc…), Presentation, Use, Distribution, Access, Service (Reference, Assistance…), Space, Transparency, Responsibility, Relevance, Authority, Authenticity, Integrity, Conservation, Preservation

Are there “core” services that every library must have?

I’ll need to come back to this when I have more time… the blog conversations are very interesting.

[Update: My wife, who unlike me does in fact work at a library, has also pointed me to the April/May/June OCLC newsletter, which addresses The Long Tail and libraries’ role in the digital economy… Here’s info from some OCLC staff on their blog…]

OK- Madisonian.net has some responses to my comments, and responses that don’t quite address what I was talking about (probably due to my unclear writing). The message is addressing the rhetorical argument of treating Google as a library, and asks the question, “What is a library?” Now, I do have an MLIS. I have studied libraries, I value the institution and I value the professional mission- and I don’t have an incredibly good answer to that question. More in a bit.

First, though, in respect to the copyright argument- I wasn’t really talking about the court of public opinion, or rhetorical arguments. I wasn’t using the term library colloquially. I was using the term library to mean a library that fulfills the requirements of Section 108 for the purposes of the library exemptions. I don’t think Google can fulfill those requirements at this point, and I don’t think they should try unless they change the way their contract works. I wasn’t making a value judgment about the usefulness or uselessness of calling Google a library, then. I will in a bit. That’s what I meant by a “real” fair use argument- not in terms of the authenticity of the argument, but in terms of a “real” fair use argument instead of a library exemption argument.

To clarify, I think it would be more useful to look at a fair use argument than a library exemption argument.

Now, the “What is a library?” question is one that is often discussed, obviously, in this field, as is the related question “What is a librarian?” In general, I think, the broader sense of information use and uses can be used to term something a “library,” but there isn’t really a consensus. Colloquially, of course, we all consider all kinds of things libraries, including personal collections and so on. In the more traditional sense, there are many types of libraries- special, public, academic, etc. These include private libraries and for-profit libraries. Now, there are unifying aspects of “librarianship” as it pertains to librarians, although they’re not quite absolute across the different areas of the profession. They’re probably best exemplified by the American Library Association and its values. There are also information professionals who have little to do with libraries as such. For example, we offer a number of courses involving information technology, human computer interaction, accessibility and usability, and so on. Some professionals consider what they do librarianship, and some don’t. Take a look at a recent librarian.net post about what Jessamyn does all day, which in a brief paragraph mentions that she doesn’t consider herself a librarian, a divide between professionals and paraprofessionals, and popular media portrayal of librarians. My perspective is probably best shown in my letter to the Texas Library Connection list. I have an MLIS, but I don’t consider myself a librarian. (Sorry, Siva. ^_-) I think that what a professional librarian does is different from what I do in my day to day activities.

No, I don’t think there is a simple “essence of a library” definition, particularly in the sense of a physical place. Some disagree. I don’t believe a library is defined by a librarian selecting materials, but I do believe there are practices that make a library a library. There’s lots of literature about the subject- I’ll see what I can dig up when I get a chance- but I don’t see an overwhelming consensus for a set definition. The commonalities, I think, the actual “essense” is best shown in shared values. Our values do tend to focus on the users, the people that use the services we work with.

In a rhetorical argument, or in the court of public opinion, yes, I think it would be useful to Google to be considered a “library,” merely because of the weight of the word and generally positive associations with the word. Even so, though, not all libraries can take advantage of copyright exemptions. For-profit libraries can’t, as an easy example. That’ s one reason I don’t think it matters- from a library exemption argument- whether or not Google is considered a library. Given Google’s recent behavior about this particular case, if the letter to Library Law is accurate, I don’t think it should be termed a library. Google’s service may be akin to a library’s service, but I don’t think calling Google a library in this case would really be beneficial or fair to libraries. Again, if the contract Google had with the universities was different, there’s a very good chance I’d back them. Generally, I really admire Google- just not in this instance.

I’m doing an informal survey about the skills the people should have before info school and skills they should have by the time they leave info school. If you’re interested and have the time, the url is
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~support/survey/

So many acronyms, so much time. A Daily Texan story from last Friday addressed the MPAA going after filesharers on Internet2, just like the RIAA. Ah, the spread of fear.

The Associated Press is going to charge online licensing fees. Some news outlets already purchase stories from the AP, but now every newspaper will need to license the content to post online. Now we’ll just need to wait and see if a) there is an overall increased cost to the news entity, and b) how these costs will affect the consumer.

Saw this story at Sivacracy– DeAngelo Bailey v. Marshall Bruce Mathers III, a/k/a Eminem Slim Shady [PDF] was decided in favor of Eminem. A person that Eminem mentioned in his lyrics as a guy who bullied him when he was a kid sued Eminem, and basically lost because as it turns out, although the song most definitely (and obviously) exaggerated events, the guy really was something of a bully when he was a kid.

Public School Proselytizing is troubling in several respects. I can’t agree that the books in question should be removed from the library without really understanding what’s going on at the school. What I do believe is that the manner that the book is being provided- at least the Journey to Japan book, in an accelerated reader program- seems entirely inappropriate given the bias in the book, particularly if, as noted, there is no context provided with the book. If the book was a regular part of a library collection, that is different. Then we have to look at how and why the book was acquired…

On a related note, I went to the exhibition hall of the Texas Library Association‘s annual conference here in Austin yesterday. Although I’m not a practicing librarian, I do have an MLIS and still support a great deal of those values, and my job here at the School of Info (when I was here, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science) still deals with a lot of information organization, presentation, access, etc. So I decided to join ALA and TLA officially recently, despite recent comments by Gorman about Information Science and blogs… At any rate, I’m still too poor to really attend the whole conference ^_- so I decided to go the exhibition hall, volunteer at the iSchool booth.

The exhibition hall was much bigger then I expected (and that’s because I’ve been there at least once before.) My parents were in town for the event (and mom was on a panel), so I met with them and heard all the stories about what’s happening in the library world and different views on the school and librarianship in general. At any rate, there were many, many, many vendors and booths there. I ran through the entire thing, picking up catalogs that I thought might be useful or interesting for work. And, I confess, one or two manga- DC, Tokyopop, and Viz all had booths and I got to hear vendors explain to librarians what manga was, why it was a good thing, why they “all look like Sailor Moon” and why some of them are read right to left.

I find it interesting that there are so many vendors there, selling fairly expensive things, when libraries haven’t really been receiving a lot of money to really purchase these types of things… it must very much be a competition for resources. I haven’t had a chance to go through the catalogs yet, but I’ll keep an eye out if there’s anything particularly interesting.

Serving ‘millennials’ is new chapter for libraries, writes the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It’s one of those things that is interesting and kind of worrisome. As an undergrad, I almost never used a library. I only really used a library when I needed to write my Masters’ Thesis, and in the interest of full disclosure, a great deal of my library time was partly to visit with that cute librarian floor supervisor. ^_^ (We got married.) At any rate, it’s not a big shock that a lot of students don’t know how to use a library, and think that library research takes too much time. What are we going to do about it?

Here’s a strange and somewhat disturbing case:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/05/140248.php

It appears that New York common law expands copyright for sound recordings that, under federal law, are no longer protected. It’s disturbing for a number of reasons. For one, now people must think about a host of other issues whenever they use a work, even if it is no longer protected by federal copyright law. That was difficult enough before this decision, and that difficulty has now grown. Now we’ll have to wait until a case of digital and/or online infringement is brought to suit.

Will any court or law recognize the value of the public domain?