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While I agree with you, I think those librarians with an identity crisis were right: they need to justify their existence in an age where they aren't needed. I

While I agree with you, I think those librarians with an identity crisis were right: they need to justify their existence in an age where they aren't needed. I do believe that if a library tries to just be a library it will not last for much longer. Which is OK. We honestly don't need libraries for what they are anymore. The reason is in the medium. When we want a book (or a CD or DVD or VHS tape or whatever) we don't want the physical object, we want the information inside. We no longer physically need the object to get at the information, we no longer need a central repository to store these objects for our convenience. Libraries have no reason to exist anymore. The true libraries of today are maligned, banned, hated, called criminals. They are libgen, scipub and torrent trackers. They're done often for no profit, just for the sake of an ideological motivation to make information available. The medium has changed but people's desire for the information is still there. There are people out there keeping up the fight, but the ones trying to maintain a quite room full of shelves just refuse to see where the fight is going and are being left behind.

at_a_remove 3y ago
They really are needed, which is the ironic part. Subject librarians are the people you want because they know what book you need before you need it, they know what sources of information are outdated, they know how to organize and get at that information, in depth. People who "just Google" something lack that depth of understanding, they end up picking the wrong books to look in, and so on. You are right that the people want the information inside, but you're missing the part where the subject librarian puts people in touch with the container that the user really wants (every user their book), even if they aren't stating it well to a search engine. And we both know how poorly people phrase things to search engines, or how a novice to the field simply does not know the correct terminology of the field (the jargon) to put in.
- friend_and_foe 3y ago
  I think you're overstating the importance of that role. The importance of libraries is that they employ a consultant that can tell you the name of a book that has the information you're looking for? And this performs better than reading the blog or publication of a field specialist? Even Wikipedia does a better job at this than any librarian I've ever talked to at any library. The most I've seen one do in recent years is enter my question into a computer and tell me the products available like an autozone employee. Nobody just has the depth of knowledge you imagine in their head at all times at a library.
  - at_a_remove 3y ago
    Not my somewhat extensive experience at all. The subject librarians I worked with had immense amounts of knowledge in their chosen fields. This, not that. That is outmoded. "What you're really looking for is ..." "That's derivative, you'll want ..." and so on. They were really the group who impressed me the most.

at_a_remove 3y ago

They really are needed, which is the ironic part. Subject librarians are the people you want because they know what book you need before you need it, they know what sources of information are outdated, they know how to organize and get at that information, in depth. People who "just Google" something lack that depth of understanding, they end up picking the wrong books to look in, and so on. You are right that the people want the information inside, but you're missing the part where the subject librarian puts people in touch with the container that the user really wants (every user their book), even if they aren't stating it well to a search engine. And we both know how poorly people phrase things to search engines, or how a novice to the field simply does not know the correct terminology of the field (the jargon) to put in.

friend_and_foe 3y ago
I think you're overstating the importance of that role. The importance of libraries is that they employ a consultant that can tell you the name of a book that has the information you're looking for? And this performs better than reading the blog or publication of a field specialist? Even Wikipedia does a better job at this than any librarian I've ever talked to at any library. The most I've seen one do in recent years is enter my question into a computer and tell me the products available like an autozone employee. Nobody just has the depth of knowledge you imagine in their head at all times at a library.
- at_a_remove 3y ago
  Not my somewhat extensive experience at all. The subject librarians I worked with had immense amounts of knowledge in their chosen fields. This, not that. That is outmoded. "What you're really looking for is ..." "That's derivative, you'll want ..." and so on. They were really the group who impressed me the most.