Monday, April 17, 2006

Whither Libraries? by Lancaster

F. Wilfrid Lancaster's "Whither Libraries? or, Wither Libraries" article tackles the issue of library technology at a point (1978) that he recognized as being a turning point in the debate between print based and non-print (electronic in this case) materials. Early in the article, he announces, "Whether we like it or not, society is evolving from one whose formal communication has, for centuries, been based almost exclusively on print on paper to one whose formal communication will be largely paperless (ie electronic)" (346). Focusing specifically on scholarly publishing in the sciences, Lancaster envisions a future that will have scientists submitting, reviewing and reading papers in an entirely electronic environment, and libraries offering access to the same material via electronic databases. Lancaster cites space concerns, production and handling costs and the time lag inherent in print publishing as motivations for a switch to electronic material, "by the year 2000, [or conceivably earlier]" (355). 2000 has come and gone: are Lancaster's predictions accurate? What, if anything, does Lancaster NOT take into account for the successful transfer to electronic publishing that could be an issue today? Lancaster closes his article by calling for more study on what libraries can do in the new electronic publishing world: what are some ways you have seen librarians adapt to the use of electronic sources?

1 comment:

Kelly said...

A while back an older lady I know asked me about the future of libraries and if I thought we'd ever do away with printed books altogether and read books on little computers ("like on Star Trek") instead.

The funny thing is, we've had the ability to read books on little computers for years, but hardly anyone does it. How many of you have ever even read an eBook? (I have...once. I didn't like it.)

We're a long way from going paperless, because it's just not what the people want. There's high demand within academia for electronic journals, but outside of that sphere I don't think many people care. And although eBooks can be useful for finding particular quotes (just do a text search!) and so on, not many people want to read one "cover to cover".