It’s time for me to step on some toes of my professional colleagues in the library profession. Yes, I know that I’m good at that. I’m also good at turning sacred cows into tofu sandwiches. My rant today is about, or against, the so-called “tech savvy” librarians. I’m sick of them. I’ve been sick of the library technophiles since library school, which was way back in 1990. You know them, they are all around us these days. They are the ones who drool over technology like a 14-year-old boy drools over the Sport Illustrated swimsuit issue. They will change everything, they tell us. You have to be an innovator or you are a dinosaur. Libraries that aren’t playing with the latest tech are backward centers of uncoolness.
The catalyst for today’s rant are a few items on “innovation in libraries” that Jessamyn posted on her blog, Librarian.net. These conversations usually entail talking about how libraries are resistant to technological change, usually with the blame being placed on librarians who aren’t “tech savvy.” New technologies have certainly added something to libraries, but what the fuck do RSS newsfeeds or XML metadat schemes have to do with serving patrons and getting people to read books? This is all just the same old librarian elitism: we have to make the newest technology to enlighten the masses. It’s like these technophiles are worried that they will be seen an uncool if they aren’t pushing the latest technology.
Do you want to talk about innovation in libraries, especially public libraries? How about this innovation: chuck all of the tech crap, fire the webmasters, settle on the current version of the OPAC software and get back to providing books and printed materials to readers. How about this innovation: libraries should be tools for social change, especially when it comes to fighting ignorance and illiteracy. Most people in this country (the USA) aren’t intellectually curious. More and more of them are becoming functionally illiterate. Making motherfucking RSS feeds and XML metedata available in your public library aren’t going to educate the majority of your neighbors who think that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. New techonology innovations are a fucking waste of time if your patrons can’t find Pakistan or Venezuela on a map. What libraries need is something akin to a philosophy of critical pedagogy which has been influential for radical educators.
These tech savvy librarians are also the ones responsible for the disappearance of books and other printed materials from our libraries. They want to turn libraries into everything but LIBRARIES. They want fancy new buildings to showcase technology. They slash periodical budgets so more tech can be brought into libraries. Who knows, they may even be responsible for libraries being turned into the equivalent of cybercafes. Yes, it’s important for working people to be able to access the Internet in the libraries, but this is a more basic need than fancy innovative new technologies. If libraries are going to move towards some kind of “digital information palace,” then let’s just get rid of the libraries right now. If the Internet is what we worship, then why the need for a library? Because libraries used to be about some radical innovative ideas such as learning, critical thinking, literacy, understanding, and so on. If people are going to turn libraries into some kind of comfortable access point ot the Internet, then you can count me out. Libraries should be about the printed word and learning the big picture. Libraries should be about understanding, not boolean fact-finding.
Perhaps it is time to throw the computers and the tech-savvy librarians out of our libraries.
原文出处：http://chuck.mahost.org/weblog/?p=909
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