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    Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google
    Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google
    Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google
    Audiobook5 hours

    Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google

    Written by John Palfrey

    Narrated by Tom Zingarelli

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information.

    In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible-by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online.

    Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 25, 2015
    ISBN9781494584726
    Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google

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    Reviews for Bibliotech

    3.5/5

    60 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Thank you. Thank you for this book. Thank you for writing a book that so many people need to read to understand what libraries and librarians are going through, what obstacles we face on a daily basis. The money we need to become better . Everyone needs to read this book and do their part in helping us transform our libraries into the current and future centuries.
    • 4/5
      I picked this book up from my public library because I was annoyed at the fact that my library once again weeded its stacks and decreased the space devoted to books, leaving huge blank gaps in already sparse shelves (I really don't understand the administrators' vision of our library if this is progress- why get rid of books when the shelves are already only half-full?) While this book did not address my issues very well, it was an interesting argument about how to transition libraries to digital materials. In my local library I suspect mismanagement may lead to a closed library in the next decade, especially because they are trying to transition away from books so aggressively, but I also served on the university library committee in grad school and a lot of what Palfrey is saying in his book makes sense in that sort of library, even if in our local branch it is not such a helpful book.

      I did wonder after a while who the intended audience is for this book. It seems to be directed at both policy-makers and the general public, so that some sections sound great as writing directed at casual readers who are concerned about the future of libraries, but these sections are incongruous with the dry, over-repetitive sections that sound more like what I might expect from a whitepaper directed at congressmen and city government. This book might be more effective if it were better organized for style, with later chapters reserved for policy-oriented argument, following a much more readable and persuasive first few chapters addressed to the general public (including policymakers, who I know get tired of reading dry reports after a while). Also, for a book about transitioning libraries to digital materials, this book was remarkably old-fashioned. A book like this could be made more informative and useful if it included urls within the main body of the text to sites with statistics, or to a supplementary website for the book that would provide links and further information for each chapter, along with interactives and other modern media.
    • 4/5
      This book gave me a lot to think about for helping my local library and others succeed in continuing to provide open access to information for all people in the "digital age."

      The best part of the book for me was the first half. The second half recapped issues I was already familiar with, and tended to repeat phrases from other chapters.

      All-in-all a good book that comes across as a bit more even-keeled and realistic than This Book is Overdue
    • 4/5
      John Palfrey led the effort to reorganize the Harvard Law School Library, and is the founding chairman of the Digital Public Library of America. In this book, he describes what libraries may look like in the future. Palfrey recognizes that libraries need to provide both physical and digital materials, at least for the near future. He advocates for libraries as nodes in a digital network so that information is shared efficiently. He also discuss the important role that libraries play in providing both digital access and research librarians that can reduce unequal access. The book is a bit dry. Palfrey describes his perspective on the libraries of the future, but I would have liked a bit more of a narrative style, with more examples and stories, but as a fan of libraries, it was fun to think about their future.
    • 2/5
      A DPLA-touting call to build concern for librarians, digital collections, and to gradually do away with the acquisition of print materials, targeted to librarians and MLIS students.
    • 4/5
      I just reread this. Preaching to the choir for me, but highly recommended for anyone who wants an overview of what's going on with libraries—which should be everyone, honestly, because libraries are going to be what saves the shreds of civilization in this country. I'm serious about that. There are very few institutions left that have the power to bridge the enormously iniquitous gap that exists, and to power through the rampant anti-intellectualism that's taking hold; libraries can do that, but they're changing, and this book is a good way to understand how and why.
    • 4/5
      Must-read for librarians navigating the information age. Palfrey, formerly of Harvard's Berkman Center and now Head of Phillips Academy in Andover MA gets that, like a free-press, libraries play an essential role in ensuring a that Americans have access they need to be informed citizens and make intelligent decisions. He also gets that the digital age is, ironically, making much information that was once freely available through libraries less easy to access as subscription databases, e-books and materials designed by corporations and marketed through sites such as Amazon.com set up barriers and distractions. His recommendations for strengthening libraries will require a huge, necessary shift for librarians and for their patrons, but he argues it is an important moment to ensure that we continue to have free access to information.
    • 4/5
      I read this book as a person who cannot function well if I do not go to a library every week. It is where I go to learn, to read, to connect, to wander. It is a place where I can almost always feel deep joy. It is where I go for solace and comfort. When my mother died I went to the Boston Public Library and lay down in the stacks near the books about Jewish women and felt at peace. This is not nostalgia. It is real. And what I think can never be replaced.I am lucky. I live in Boston. I can go to any library I want in the city and surrounding communities, which I do. Last year, I decided to go see some of the smaller, further flung libraries in the state. I began to notice that when I walked in I did not see books upon entering the building but computers, CD's, audio books and a smaller section of new books. I went to one library that recently won the small library of the year award but I barely saw books but mostly IPads, etc. As I talked to the librarians I came to understand that there were big changes happening in libraries and that while they had always acted as community centers they were increasingly tech and information centers too. I was not sure what to make of this so I picked up John Paltry's BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google to learn more about libraries in this technological age. I gave this book four stars because it made me reevaluate and think about the current relevance of libraries and, while I disagreed with some of his points, I also felt excited to learn this new material and have more depth of knowledge regarding this issue.Of course all things change. I own a Kindle and read this book on it. I agree with John Paltry that libraries must not only change and adapt but lead the way so that libraries remain relevant and all generations can access technology to learn, to grow, to move ahead in this fast-paced world. He presents major points about how to make this change happen with passion, depth and some repetitiveness. I think some of these changes are occurring and will continue to do so and many of these, in this era of cost saving, income inequality and of partisan politics, will not. And some of them I just disagree with, i.e. virtual browsing versus physical stacks. In any case, my hope is that libraries can continue to be one of the last public places for all, especially now that even public schools are being privatized and sold to the highest bidder. We need them more than ever during these hard times and that is not just a library lover waxing nostalgic!Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion.
    • 3/5
      Approach this book with two background facts about Palfrey. First, he is not a librarian, but a lawyer. For reasons that elude articulation, he was briefly appointed director of one of the premier law libraries in the country, but then quickly left to become a high school principal. So to the extent he has any deep knowledge of libraries at all (this appears, for example, in his inability to distinguish libraries from archives, and speaks of them interchangeably), it is of short duration and purely elite. But having "Harvard" on his vita has given him a soapbox which he is not shy about using to spread his views, regardless of whether they have intrinsic merit. Second, he dislikes the physical book. He doesn't say that directly in this volume, but he does indicate that the world will soon be entirely digital: print cannot go away "immediately" (p. 35); not all materials have "yet" been digitized (70). So while we have to cope with a transitional dual-format world today, he can't wait for that to be over. As shown in his work drafting the "Durham Statement," he in fact believes librarians should actively lobby publishers to cease print versions of their titles.Despite these limitations, he is a well-intentioned, if simplistic fan of libraries. He speaks with all the fervor of a dilettante, but in his well meaning posturing does unintended harm. The gist of his argument is that libraries today are in a bad situation, and that the solution is for libraries to "make the shift toward the digital and away from print." Physical libraries can play a role, but it will be more in the way of community centers than as places to browse print books. There will still be a need for "contemplative public spaces," although he is inspecific as to how those environments are created without book collections. Instead of being stand alone institutions, libraries should become nodes of a digital network offering "platforms" to access information held elsewhere.If you grant Palfrey his initial premise, these conclusions do seem to follow. But he fundamentally misunderstands libraries. He describes them as having once had the aspiration to collect everything, and that because that has now become impossible the traditional library is a failure. The challenge then as he sees it is to chart a course toward renewed relevance with a different mission in this, his "digital age." But libraries have never (excepting perhaps the Library of Alexandria) aspired, even as an ideal, to hold "everything." The inability to meet this imagined ideal does not make libraries a failed institution that needs a new direction. At points he accidentally gets closer to the more basic project of the library, but because of his theoretical predispositions he is blinded to their implications. We may liken this to the black body radiation problem in classical physics; the phenomenon was known, but unsolvable until the innovations of quantum mechanics. Fundamental elements of the library experience are either unexplainable in his model, or minimized as being mere "nostalgia" when they should be recognized as shedding light on fundamental elements of the library as social institution. Two examples suffice. While waxing poetic on the virtues of digitization, he concedes that even when perfect digital replicas exist, we should still keep the original "analog" version. Of course we should; but his model of the ideal all-digital library does not lead to that conclusion, in fact quite the opposite. He gestures weakly toward "preservation" as the explanation, but elsewhere he is perfectly satisfied to accept digital versions as sufficing to preserve content. A second unexplained phenomenon are the "good feelings" people report from their associations using libraries. Again, we cannot expect a similar emotional reaction from using a Kindle or any electronic file, so whence this attachment and how does he intend to preserve it in his all electronic future? Others have argued that libraries evoke this emotional response precisely because they are NOT universal content repositories, but rather uniquely tailored to reflect the community it serves. Librarians will recognize this as "collection development," which involves both selecting titles that fit the local interests, but also which ones to exclude, even if they are being given for free. Libraries allow their patrons to see the best images of themselves, and this positive reinforcement is the source of what he belittles as mere "nostalgia." This view argues for the physical preservation of unique content of value to the community, and explains why merely sitting in that space is qualitatively different from sitting in a study hall or auditorium even if these alternatives allow an equally quiet reading environment. Any book titled with the conceit to disclose why libraries "matter" but which leaves such basics unexplained ranks as a disappointment. In sum, Palfrey can claim only a superficial, outsider's view of libraries, and this book reflects that shallow albeit well-intended perspective. He is right that libraries are experiencing challenges, but his solutions would in fact risk turning libraries into mere information kiosks or "gas stations," as he describes them, and destroy them as fundamentally important social institutions. May libraries be preserved from such friends.
    • 2/5
      Cute title – but not the book’s topicPublic libraries are on their way out. Like every government supported service, they are being squeezed financially until they can no longer provide service. Then the same politicians will crow that libraries are terrible places that do nothing and deserve to be turned into and bed and breakfasts. (This is an example Palfrey gives at least twice. He says a lot of things at least twice.)Unfortunately, Biblio Tech has no answers. Palfrey makes a total of two points throughout the book: libraries need to be funded and they need to adapt to the new age. How to achieve either of those worthy goals is nebulous. He spends a great deal of paper over libraries offering new services, like tax forms, job searches and such. There are scattered librarians who understand that they need to network their libraries. About the only concrete examples of progress is libraries preserving documents that are of local interest. They can then act as a sort of InterLibrary Loan, rather than try to have it all under one roof. Even research libraries can’t keep up with the flood of documents thanks to computers. For public libraries, the focus of Biblio Tech, it is impossible.Saving public libraries is like saving the newsreel before the feature film. When people had no other way to get visuals, the newsreel was hot. When information was nowhere to be found, the public library was a godsend.Palfrey concludes with a quote he delights in from the president of the Libraries Association on the need for her product: “The reason I think the future of libraries is so important is because I want to ensure that every child in America has access to information he or she needs to be well informed before casting a vote.” This, ironically, summarizes the problem. How many children do you know go to public libraries to research issues before an election? How many children do you know vote? Until or unless public libraries find a way to be useful to those over 18 – ie. taxpayers - they are going to fade away. Biblio Tech will not stop that, nor even slow it down.David Wineberg