When I was at the ALLA conference in Perth, somebody asked me this question, "Why is your blog called the exploded library?"
I shouldn't have to say this, but the exploded library is just a metaphor. I do not write about actual exploded libraries or librarians. It is always amusing (and a little disturbing) when I am referred to as the exploded librarian, but that is definitely not me.
I could go into this at great length, and I thought that I had done so already, but I couldn't find the post, not even with the new search engine which I've recently added into the blog.
Here's the short version:
The internet is a collective exploded library. Information has been exploded and scattered and broken – information is also more transient in the exploded library. Many librarians hate the exploded library (the concept, hopefully not the blog). They argue, convincingly, that it was much easier to find information when it was all bound and catalogued in libraries, selected by librarians. Although I try to keep an open mind about the value of ordering
information and the short-comings of the exploded library, I am
definitely biased. I like these changes. I like that information has been freed to a certain extent and that there are fewer gatekeepers for both readers and writers.
I try not to have illusions about these changes. Everybody often has a hard time finding anything relevant or good in this chaos. But we'd better learn new ways of dealing with this. Information is not going to become unexploded and easily go back into its box or shelves. Paraphrasing Dorothy Shea from her session on the Art of Reference in ALLA 2008, this is a challenging time for librarians because if we're serious about helping people find all the relevant information (especially in law libraries), we need to have one foot in the regular ordered library and the other foot in the chaotic exploded library.
It is very difficult to be adept in both order and chaos, but that is what we must aim for. It's also ok if some librarians are better with order and others (like me) are better in chaos, so long as we can still talk to each other and learn from each other. I like to think that if librarians can bridge the dichotomy between ordered information and chaotic information, we will always be relevant.
I have been very inconsistent about what I call this blog. For the last few years, I have been in the practice of calling it the explodedlibrary. I think one reason why I did this was to make a slight distinction between the name of the blog and the concept of the exploded library. But “exploded library” is easier to write, and I might go with that for now.
