Tag Archives: Internet

The Internet Needs a Librarian

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People are beginning to recognize the fact that the world of Internet Connectivity is not exactly the utopia we dreamed of in the 1990s.  In fact, the dangers of personalization by “algorithm gatekeepers” is now causing some of us to be anxious about our filter bubbles. (See Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles” in this TED talk.)

 

Personalization

Eli Pariser is making a great point about personalization; however, I notice he calls the gatekeepers of the old information hierarchy “editors”.  I believe a better term for the professionals who are trained in information access, storage and retrieval would be “librarians”.  In fact, the checklist he pulls up looks like something I learned in library school.  Imagine a world where people actually realized there are core values of librarianship that could benefit them. What a concept! 

 

I am not blaming Mr. Pariser for ignoring librarians in the connection between relevant, nonbiased, high quality information and the lack thereof online.  I merely remind us all that some people are specifically trained to acquire high quality, diverse, challenging, thought provoking resources and those people are called librarians.  Unfortunately, the perception of sitting at a circulation desk with a stamp pad is stuck in the minds of many who just didn’t realize how a library is made in the first place.  But, the Internet was not made by librarians and has no caretaker who is trained to provide the best. 

 Content Curation

Today-  everyone can be a librarian, an author, a journalist, a newscaster, a musician, an artist, an actor…or whatever online.  Content curation sites are sprouting up like weeds.  And speaking of weeds, librarians are trained to “weed” the library with the goal of helping the “living organism [Ranganathan]” maintain a healthy circulatory system.  There is no weeding of the Internet.  It is more like a garbage dump than a garden.

Sites like Scoop-it, are so popular now, educators are providing content creation lessons for students and businesses are utilizing them.

 

 

 The point is to help others navigate through the sea of chaos!  So, we should think about what we are adding to a topic or how we are helping others weed out the nonsense and cultivate the best content.  In other words, we really are all librarians now!  But I still say, “the Internet needs a librarian”.

The Toppling Hierarchy of Information

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Web 2.o (perhaps an over-used term but a rapidly expanding source of shared information) may include user-generated content, social media, wikinomics, folksonomies and open source software.  For centuries, scholars have treasured the great works created by the most brilliant minds.  Expert authority has been regarded with great esteem by the wise elders. Now that the hierarchy of information has toppled, is respect for human ideas, creativity, and wisdom still valued?

Today, we see a trend toward “information wants to be free.” Note the link to cyberpunks and that idea that hackers are liberators of information which should never be isolated or controlled by a single ideology.  Don’t mistake my intent here to insult hackers or cyberpunks.  Some of the individuals I follow in my personal leraning network may fall into that category!

The core philosophical standards of my training as a librarian have encouraged me to balance intellectual freedom with intellectual property.  I hear many people call the Internet the “world’s biggest library” and use the term “Google” as both librarian and search strategy.  Many individuals are unaware of the cost of high quality information in academic databases.  Convenient sources, accessed immediately, are first choice.  Giving credit to the source of information retrieved online is an idea that is archaic in some circles.  Respect for intellectual property is the concern of stuffy old academics from the dark ages.  A science teacher can use a youtube video created by a 6th grader to teach magnetism, so who needs an expert?

Why I do I care?  Why am I taking the time to write this blog?

Standing among the rubble, having witnessed the toppling of the hierarchy of information, my concern is that human beings will no longer have a quest for deep understanding.  I think I am beginning to understand The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.

Who am I to write about this?  I am no authority!  I am an example of the problem I address, adding to the “sea of chaos” by writing a user-generated blog.  Spouting off my meager ramblings for the world to read (knowing that the likelihood is extremely small because the average time spent on a webpage according Nicholas Carr is only 18 seconds), I often feel unqualified to share my thoughts online.  I remind myself that I should be willing to serve as a “brave guinnea pig” in this new era because there is no going back to life before the net.

The only redeeming value I can see in this post, is that fact that I am revising a draft that I started two years ago ( August 2009).  I saw my unfinished post titled “The Toppling Hierarchy of Information” and was compelled to revise.  Oh, the power of that word- revision (to see again).

 

My Father’s Wisdom

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This week, my Dad celebrated his 85th birthday and I was so happy to have spent it with him in Seattle. We had another fabulous conversation (see my earlier blog post) about the exponential changes taking place in the information age. Born in 1926, my Dad can remember a world that is nothing like our world today. Old sayings like, “the more things change, the more they stay the same” or “there’s nothing new under the sun” may still apply to universal human situations; however, the revolutionary changes we are seeing in technology are, in my father’s words, “sometimes frightening”. Perhaps there now IS something new under the sun! Or, perhaps now- the more things change, the more they change again!

I think what impressed me most about our conversation was the wisdom in my father’s eyes. Even though times are uncertain and unlike any before, his acceptance of a higher power brings a calmness to the stormy sea of chaos.

On the flight back home, I was reading The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. James Gleick points out that technology has caused discomfort throughout the history of communication. For example, when people began sending messages by telegraph in the 1840’s, they worried about privacy. “Compared to handwritten letters, folded and sealed with wax, the whole affair seemed public and insecure– the messages passing along those mysterious conduits, the electric wires” (Gleick, 2011, p. 145). So, both statements seem true– everything has changed yet everything seems the same. Each generation wonders what this world is coming to! We all grow into parents who worry about the future for our children.

I enjoy learning in this new age of information with all the new exciting new media formats. Yet, I also worry. My worries include entering The Shallows (next book on my list- which deals with what the Internet is doing to our brains) and investigating literature about the singularity. When I get to the scary parts, I shall remember the wisdom in my father’s eyes and his acceptance of a higher power.