Blogging's been light lately because I'm getting over a cold. Of course I know why I caught this, because I mentioned online how I had dodged this bullet several times lately.
Fascinating discussions on the essence of a library. It puts me in awkward position. I'm generally quite well-disposed towards to Google, and believe that Google and other search engines can complement libraries and vice versa. I think there's plenty of room for both libraries and Google, but Google is a very different beast than a human staffed library. If libraries are redefined in Google's image, the uniqueness of human-staffed libraries will be defined out of existence. Would this be the beginning of the end for libraries - maybe, maybe not.
Here's an interesting Copyfight post that is one link removed from this topic. If librarians are to survive and thrive in the 21st century, we need to avoid the extremes of a) being luddites and sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring these changes and b) giving up and not standing our ground to preserve what only human librarians can do.
