Week 2 Readings Reactions

Steven J. Bell

Submit or resist: Librarianship in the age of Google

In comparing the differing viewpoints librarians have on whether to join with Google or resist Googlelization, Bell favors resistance.  While recognizing the need for improvement in library interfaces, he advocates for internal progression, as opposed to adopting a more Googlelized approach. In general, I agree that libraries need to continue internal improvement, as well as educate users. However, as a student, I found the tone of this article to be off-putting. He uses the words “good enough” as a derogatory term. What does “good-enough” even mean? Good enough to pass a class or good enough to get an A? If using resources found on Google is “good enough” to receive an A, a student is not going to work harder to find better quality articles that would have resulted in the same grade.

Shirley D. Kennedy

Give Them What They Want

                                                                                                                           

Kennedy is, as she says “on the pragmatic side” of the Googlelization debate. She makes the point that ultimately librarians are there to help their users find what they want. Some users are satisfied with “good enough” and some users want to find more. A single approach is not going to cut it with every user. I heartily agree. Google is simple and for many people it provides the answers they were looking for. Making library resources available on Google will lead to those library resources being used, which I think is a good thing.

Michael Cart

What Literature?

This pessimistic article was written in 1993, a mere three years before the arrival of the Harry Potter series. Cart deplores the sad state of children’s literature of the time, implying that only short or flashily reviewed books were getting any attention. I wonder what he thought of the incredibly long, deeply moving, and yes highly popular Harry Potter books? So much of my life was affected by reading these and other books. As a bookseller I see hundreds of children every week asking for different books, that I have a hard time imagining children’s literature as the desperate wasteland he describes.

David Issacson

Let Them Steal Books

I am on board with Issacson’s idea that libraries should give some books away. If the library has no use for a book, and is going to throw a book away, it should be given away instead. I disagree with his views on book thieves who steal for the love of books. He advocates leniency with this group, even though like the professors he maligns, these thieves are also denying library users the right to read this book. Just because a person loves books does not give him/her the right to take the book in order to own it. An honest mistake of walking out without checking out can be forgiven, but for the internal problems that missing book can cause, I still don’t think parties in their honor should be encouraged.

Standards of Eligibility to Receive State Funds

This document was a hard to follow, but informative listing of legal qualifications that must be met to allow a library to be publically funded in Indiana. Having never seen the legal standards public libraries are held to, this was instructive, if not particularly easy to navigate.