{"id":988,"date":"2009-10-02T20:20:24","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T03:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/?p=988"},"modified":"2009-10-02T20:29:30","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T03:29:30","slug":"virtual-libraries-past-present-and-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/2009\/10\/02\/virtual-libraries-past-present-and-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Libraries: Past, Present, and Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Use this link<\/a> to view this commentary as a PDF document.<\/p>\n

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\"virtual_library\"This commentary will review the 1994 James O\u2019Donnell\u00a0 essay, \u201cThe Virtual Library:\u00a0 An Idea Whose Time Has Passed\u201d.\u00a0 After critiquing the essay, a synthesis will describe the two diverging arguments brought forth by the author, and the weaknesses of the conclusions reached.<\/p>\n

The essay argues that the \u201cvirtual library\u201d, as an all encompassing, centralized repository of \u201cuniversal knowledge\u201d, is an ancient aspiration. O\u2019Donnell states that the \u201cfantasy\u201d of the virtual library is an ancient one that is \u201calmost coterminous with the history of the book itself\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 9).\u00a0 This ancient hope is now encapsulated with today\u2019s technology of the Internet and computer.\u00a0\u00a0 However, O\u2019Donnell believes that society now risks excising the traditional roles the library has played for centuries in this quest to create the virtual library.\u00a0 He describes the central roles of the library as, \u201can extraordinary one, of course, and thus fragile\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 8).\u00a0 One of these functions has been to collect codices and books to help knowledge survive.\u00a0 While the continuing to focus of preserving knowledge, the library collections changed, \u201cbetween the traditional literary culture of antiquity and the chiefly monastic Christian textual culture of the middle ages\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para 12).<\/p>\n

Another central tenet of the library that the author further describes is the \u201cauthority\u201d and centralized power that books developed and maintained concurrently with libraries.\u00a0 Text maintained power due to the acceptance, expectation, and reliance on its existence (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 15).\u00a0 O\u2019Donnell sees this deference to text as a, \u201creliance on texts implies that someone will own texts and they will be accessible: ownership and access remain central concerns in all discussion of the present and future of the library\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 20).\u00a0 He sees these issues of the power of text, and the control and access to text as being predominant issues up to and including modern libraries.<\/p>\n

Both ancient and modern libraries have also seen them share, \u201cthe fantasy of the virtual library\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 24).\u00a0 This is due to all libraries, virtual or otherwise seeing themselves as receptacles of the culmination of knowledge.\u00a0 However, O\u2019Donnell sees the concept of any library, virtual or otherwise, fulfilling such as goal, being \u201cat best a useful fiction, at worst a hallucination\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 28).\u00a0 He also sees virtual libraries as creating risks for authors, professors, publishers, librarians, and scholars, for the stability of text and its ability to transmit key knowledge to new generations (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 31-32). Further, the very dominance of text in under threat the face of the visual and aural capabilities of a virtual library (i O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para 27).\u00a0 The author further questions where the control and access functions will be maintained within a virtual libraries contents as, \u201cone of the most valuable functions of the traditional library has not been its inclusivity but its exclusivity that keeps out as many things as it keeps in\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 36).\u00a0 O\u2019Donnell sees the most positive of outcomes as being a virtual library the incorporates all that exists now in libraries but, \u201conly better and faster\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para 34).<\/p>\n

In my opinion, O\u2019Donnell\u2019s arguments are unclear as he describes two divergent, but incongruent themes.\u00a0 One theme describes the virtual library in terms of a \u201cmyth\u201d that will not come to fruition, while the other theme acknowledges the development of the virtual library while worrying about the change or extinction of many of the traditional roles of libraries that may come with a virtual library.<\/p>\n

One area of concern is that O\u2019Donnell appears to argue that the form of the library is one that only in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw change.\u00a0 However, he refutes his own point when he notes that libraries changed from a scholarly to a Christian focus. (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 12).\u00a0 Further, this evolution of the library is also seen by Roy (1997) who notes that, \u201calthough the clientele, sources of funding, classification system, and prevailing media has changed, the fundamental function of the library has remained stable throughout history\u201d (para. 1).\u00a0 The library has experienced change but has continued to exist.<\/p>\n

Another area of concern is regarding the centralized power of the library.\u00a0 Other proponents of the virtual library such as Babbar and Chandok (2008), also note that \u201cthe most critical issues in a digital archiving strategy are not technical, although these are formidable, but economic, societal, and organizational\u201d (p. 295).\u00a0 Roy (1997) also explains, \u201cthe potential for censorship, control of access to knowledge and information, and limitation of intellectual freedom is boundless\u201d (para. 12).\u00a0 While the issue of control may be a continuing issue, if \u201cthe library\u201d continues to function as a monolithic entity with all included media scrutinized, cataloged, and housed within a library that has \u201cone ideal form\u201d (O\u2019Donnell, 1994, para. 26), there may be an alternative outcome.\u00a0 It can be argued that the Internet and thus a virtual library could be the exact antithesis of this unified form due to the vast number of sources from individuals writing weblogs to media organizations creating online content.\u00a0 All of these wellsprings are separate, yet within the loose coalescence of the Internet are simultaneously accessible and thus create individual personal libraries for every \u201cnetizen\u201d.\u00a0 While an entity such as a university may reject a text in codex or electronic form for its library, virtual or otherwise, the difference is that the electronic text may still be accessible from another online source.\u00a0 To this end, the question must be raised if the control function of libraries is a vital, necessary, or viable one or are there better roles to play.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell\u2019s argument that the \u201cauthor is already an endangered species,\u201d (para. 28) can be disputed as anyone with Internet access may become a published author with a readership from zero to millions.\u00a0 While O\u2019Donnell may be concerned about the survival of the library, others are not.\u00a0 Babbar and Chandok write that, \u201cto claim, as some now do, that the \u201cPaperless Society\u201d will make libraries obsolete is as silly as saying shoes have made feet unnecessary\u201d (p. 298).\u00a0 McClure (1995) continues this belief by declaring, \u201cwhatever it is called \u2013 library, learning center, digital or virtual library \u2013 the institution will continue to be a place\u201d (p. 314). The author appears cynical of a technologically-based decentralized library proposed by some.\u00a0 To be sure, a pollyanna optimism surrounding virtual libraries is not useful either, only a balanced consideration of the positives and benefits of the concept will help examination this important scholarly topic in a thorough manner.\u00a0 If O\u2019Donnell\u2019s dystopic library vision is true, then other cultural edifices such as museums and art galleries may also be headed for their demise.\u00a0 However, I suggest that it is more likely that all libraries will continue and evolve into new, still vital forms that continue to serve their patrons.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Babbar, P., & Chandhok, S. (2008). Paperless Society: A Digital Library Future.\u00a0 Retrieved from http:\/\/ir.inflibnet.ac.in:8080\/jspui\/bitstream\/123456789\/479\/1\/CALIBER%202008(29).pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

McClure, L. W. (1995). From brick face to cyberspace. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association<\/em>, 83<\/em>(3), 311.\u00a0 Retrieved from http:\/\/www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov\/articlerender.fcgi?artid=226094&pageindex=1<\/a><\/p>\n

O’Donnell, James J. (1994) “The Virtual Library; An Idea Whose Time Has Passed.” Retrieved from http:\/\/www9.georgetown.edu\/faculty\/jod\/virtual.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Roy, M. V. (Spring 1997). ” The Virtual Library: Rhetoric and Reality.\u00a0 Retrieved from http:\/\/etext.lib.virginia.edu\/journals\/itjournal\/1997\/Articles\/miker.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Use this link to view this commentary as a PDF document. This commentary will review the 1994 James O\u2019Donnell\u00a0 essay, \u201cThe Virtual Library:\u00a0 An Idea Whose Time Has Passed\u201d.\u00a0 After critiquing the essay, a synthesis will describe the two diverging arguments brought forth by the author, and the weaknesses of the conclusions reached. The essay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4973],"tags":[3749,5347,5775,709,240,1107,5774],"class_list":["post-988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary-1","tag-computer","tag-control","tag-etext","tag-history","tag-library","tag-ownership","tag-virtual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}