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LM_NETters:  Some praise for librarians!  Please excuse the multiple
forwarding info.
                                   Michael Kankiewicz
                                   Business / Government Documents
                                   Lockwood Memorial Library
                                   University at Buffalo


----------------------------Original message----------------------------
See the following editorial from the LA Times, 3/30/95
  jh
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From: Albert Brecht <abrecht@Law.usc.edu>
Sender: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list <law-lib@ucdavis.edu>
Subject: LA Times Editorial -- Super Library
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 11:52:21 -0800


LA Times Editorial March 30, 1995

Democrats and Republicans alike are optimistic about the electronic
storage and exchange of information.  The Democrats talk about the
"information superhighway."  One Republican leader mused publicly about
actually giving away laptop computers.

The new technology excites virtually everyone who gets close to it.
Unfortunately, increased access to information for some could be matched
in this new Information Age by decreased access for others.  Not everyone
can afford a computer, and, time being money, many who can buy the
hardware cannot buy the time needed to master the software.

Where, in this technological era, is the public servant who can function
the way the reference librarian once functioned?  In an American public
library system unique in the world, perhaps the single most striking
feature has been the availability of information consultants, the
librarians themselves, paid for by the state and serving the public.
Knowledge is power, and American democracy, trusting the people, has
been willing to provide them with that power.  Still, as technology for
the storage and exchange of information evolves, where is the public
consultant who, like the kindly and knowledgeable consultant at the
reference desk of old, can direct the questioner to the "shelf" where
the answer awaits?

The answer is obvious.  That public consultant is the librarian.
Librarians are Internet veterans.  They had e-mail addresses before the
public at large had yet heard of such a thing.  Though their network has
received less publicity than many commercial on-line services, the
librarians, in effect, got there first.

Early expertise explains why, in Maryland, libraries have been able to
team up and provide an e-mail address to every patron who wants one,
using in-library computers purchased for the purpose under a special
pilot project.  The libraries are not just providing the hardware.  They
are also, crucially, providing the expertise necessary to turn Internet
"newbies" into cyberspace explorers.

All this takes money, of course, and Maryland's wonderful experiment has
an expiration date.  Nationwide, the problem is that library funding has
been handled at the local level.  Library users have shown strong
support for libraries.  However, even the sturdiest local support cannot
fund the full transition of the traditional library system into a
high-tech provider of information.  This challenge falls, not just by
default but in principle, to the federal government, for it involves
integrating the libraries of the country into a single, vast library:
super library  rather than superhighway.

We hope it can be done.  But it depends on whether the likes of Al Gore
and Newt Gingrich back up their brave talk with a little brave action.


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