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Thus far, I haven't really commented on the draconian cuts announced to the Library and Archives Canada, as well as numerous other federal government libraries. However, they have been very much on my mind as I've been going about my work with the Ex Libris Association (a group made up mainly of retired librarians, from all types of libraries and other organizations). At the Canadian Library Association's annual conference, which took place in Ottawa from May 30 to June 2, May 31 was a Day of Action to support federal libraries, and we were urged to wear a white shirt and/or black ribbon. There were at least two people I knew at the conference handing out these ribbons and cards with information on them about the cuts, but one of them somehow managed to get herself ejected (and no, she wasn't being obstreperous - she was just calmly standing there handing out the cards and ribbons and conversing in a normal voice with anyone who was interested in talking to her).
The opening keynote speaker was Daniel J. Caron, whose job title is Librarian and Archivist of Canada, though he doesn't actually have a library degree at all - he's very much a number-crunching businessman, though he managed to get a PhD in something. Disappointingly, he read his entire speech - in English only, strangely enough - and did not have a Q&A session immediately following it, though there WAS one after lunch, in a much smaller room - which I attended. So I guess he deserves a limited number of kudos for (a) showing up at all (rumour had it that he might bail); and (b)returning in the afternoon for the Q&A (which I had expected to be much better attended than it actually was).
In his address, Caron pointed out that the move from analog to digital did not mean leaving old formats behind: we do not stop speaking when we learn to write. Instead, he said information was moving from being something solid and fixed to being fluid and participatory. He said that people are reading and creating more texts than ever before. He said the library is no longer just a knowledge repository but a learning commons and a knowledge production centre. He spoke about information being "liberated from its containers". He pointed out that the milkman no longer delivers the milk, but people do still drink milk. And he cautioned about our cognitive bias, saying that a feeling of loss of what used to be could mask exciting new opportunities.
So when I got my chance to ask him a question, I picked up on some of his metaphors. Maybe we are indeed freeing information from its containers. But whatever happened to the idea that the medium is the message - or at least PART of the message? Poetry (usually) is meant to be heard but not seen; drama is usually meant to be heard and seen (but not, at least as the primary experience, to be read). You can smash your milk bottle and the milk still exists, but it is so contaminated by bits of glass and dirt that it's no longer stable or fit to drink - and so it is quite often in the case of the Internet: when it's no longer read-only, we're often not quite sure what was put there by the original author and to what extent the author's creation or intellectual output was either polluted or enriched by other contributors. Freshness and context are very important. Containers don't just restrain, they also preserve and give shape to their contents. So what, I asked Dr. Caron, does he see as being the role of the information "container" in this day and age. Is it still important?
I'd have to say that he did actually seem to be listening and thinking about my remarks and my question as if he was actually interested and he did answer in a thoughtful manner, without becoming unduly defensive. Needless to say, I still am not happy with the policy directions being taken, but I think perhaps I managed to reinforce the importance of, for example, preserving originals when it comes to our "documentary heritage". I'm all in favour of things like art galleries displaying works from their collections over the Internet, but the image on your screen does not have the richness of content, nor the artistic and emotional impact of the actual work of art.
The opening keynote speaker was Daniel J. Caron, whose job title is Librarian and Archivist of Canada, though he doesn't actually have a library degree at all - he's very much a number-crunching businessman, though he managed to get a PhD in something. Disappointingly, he read his entire speech - in English only, strangely enough - and did not have a Q&A session immediately following it, though there WAS one after lunch, in a much smaller room - which I attended. So I guess he deserves a limited number of kudos for (a) showing up at all (rumour had it that he might bail); and (b)returning in the afternoon for the Q&A (which I had expected to be much better attended than it actually was).
In his address, Caron pointed out that the move from analog to digital did not mean leaving old formats behind: we do not stop speaking when we learn to write. Instead, he said information was moving from being something solid and fixed to being fluid and participatory. He said that people are reading and creating more texts than ever before. He said the library is no longer just a knowledge repository but a learning commons and a knowledge production centre. He spoke about information being "liberated from its containers". He pointed out that the milkman no longer delivers the milk, but people do still drink milk. And he cautioned about our cognitive bias, saying that a feeling of loss of what used to be could mask exciting new opportunities.
So when I got my chance to ask him a question, I picked up on some of his metaphors. Maybe we are indeed freeing information from its containers. But whatever happened to the idea that the medium is the message - or at least PART of the message? Poetry (usually) is meant to be heard but not seen; drama is usually meant to be heard and seen (but not, at least as the primary experience, to be read). You can smash your milk bottle and the milk still exists, but it is so contaminated by bits of glass and dirt that it's no longer stable or fit to drink - and so it is quite often in the case of the Internet: when it's no longer read-only, we're often not quite sure what was put there by the original author and to what extent the author's creation or intellectual output was either polluted or enriched by other contributors. Freshness and context are very important. Containers don't just restrain, they also preserve and give shape to their contents. So what, I asked Dr. Caron, does he see as being the role of the information "container" in this day and age. Is it still important?
I'd have to say that he did actually seem to be listening and thinking about my remarks and my question as if he was actually interested and he did answer in a thoughtful manner, without becoming unduly defensive. Needless to say, I still am not happy with the policy directions being taken, but I think perhaps I managed to reinforce the importance of, for example, preserving originals when it comes to our "documentary heritage". I'm all in favour of things like art galleries displaying works from their collections over the Internet, but the image on your screen does not have the richness of content, nor the artistic and emotional impact of the actual work of art.
