Death by Irony: How Librarians Killed the Academic Library
Interesting essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Commentary" section. Obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it still resonates. The intro paragraph reads: "The academic library has died. Despite early diagnosis, audacious denial in the face of its increasingly severe symptoms led to its deterioration and demise. The academic library died alone, largely neglected and forgotten by a world that once revered it as the heart of the university. On its deathbed, it could be heard mumbling curses against Google and something about a bygone library guru named Ranganathan." Full text at: http://bit.ly/hzuTX1
Thanks for that link... I guess! It was very informative in various ways, and combined tragedy and grounds for celebration. "But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed. Something's lost but something's gained in living every day." I wonder how much people will realise that "something's lost"... Jon On 2011/01/04 09:20 AM, Michael S. Hart wrote:
Interesting essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Commentary" section. Obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it still resonates.
The intro paragraph reads:
"The academic library has died. Despite early diagnosis, audacious denial in the face of its increasingly severe symptoms led to its deterioration and demise. The academic library died alone, largely neglected and forgotten by a world that once revered it as the heart of the university. On its deathbed, it could be heard mumbling curses against Google and something about a bygone library guru named Ranganathan."
Full text at: http://bit.ly/hzuTX1 _______________________________________________ gutvol-d mailing list gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo/gutvol-d
Compare to this article, written in July 2001 (!) and attacked by librarians and gurus ever since: http://samvak.tripod.com/busiweb19.html Sam On Tue, 4 Jan 2011, Jon Richfield wrote:
Thanks for that link... I guess! It was very informative in various ways, and combined tragedy and grounds for celebration.
"But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed. Something's lost but something's gained in living every day."
I wonder how much people will realise that "something's lost"...
Jon
On 2011/01/04 09:20 AM, Michael S. Hart wrote:
Interesting essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education's "Commentary" section. Obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but it still resonates.
The intro paragraph reads:
"The academic library has died. Despite early diagnosis, audacious denial in the face of its increasingly severe symptoms led to its deterioration and demise. The academic library died alone, largely neglected and forgotten by a world that once revered it as the heart of the university. On its deathbed, it could be heard mumbling curses against Google and something about a bygone library guru named Ranganathan."
Full text at: http://bit.ly/hzuTX1 _______________________________________________ gutvol-d mailing list gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org http://lists.pglaf.org/mailman/listinfo/gutvol-d
participants (3)
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Jim Adcock -
Jon Richfield -
Michael S. Hart