Estarão os bibliotecários completamente obsoletos?

Propomos-lhe aqui uma estimulante reflexão sobre o papel das bilbiotecas no presente e no futuro.

33 Reasons Why Libraries and Librarians are Still Extremely Important
by: Will Sherman


Many predict that the digital age will wipe public bookshelves clean, and permanently end the centuries-old era of libraries. Technology's baffling prowess and progress even has one librarian predicting the institution's demise.



He could be right.


But if he is, then the loss will be irreplaceable. As libraries' relevance comes into question, they face an existential crisis at a time they are perhaps needed the most. Despite their perceived obsoleteness in the digital age both libraries – and librarians – are irreplaceable for many reasons. 33, in fact. We've listed them here:


1. Not everything is available on the internet
The amazing amount of useful information on the web has, for some, engendered the false assumption everything can be found online. It's simply not true.
Google Book Search recognizes this. That's why they're taking on the monolith task of digitizing millions of books from the World's largest libraries. But even if Google does successfully digitize the sum of human knowledge, it is unlikely that the sum of contemporary authors and publishers will not allow their works to be freely accessible over the internet. It is already prohibited by law to make copyrighted books fully accessible through Google Book Search; only snippets. And it'll be a long time before that must-read New York Times bestseller gets put up for free on the internet: current copyright law protects works for 70 years beyond the death of the author.
Even some public domain works are off limits. If an out-of-copyright copy includes prefaces, introductions, or appendices that are still in copyright, the whole work falls under copyrighted status.


2. Digital libraries are not the internet
A fundamental understanding of what the internet is – and what it isn't – can help more clearly define what a library is, and why libraries are still extremely important.
The Elmer E. Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks clearly spells out the difference between "Online Collections" and the "Internet or Web Sources". The internet, this site explains, is a mass of largely unpublished materials produced by organizations, businesses, individuals, experimental projects, entrepreneurial webmasters, etc.
"Online Collections", however, are different. They are typically provided by libraries and include materials that have been published via rigorous editorial processes. Works selected for inclusion in a library catalogue undergo vetting from qualified staff. Types of materials include books, journals, documents, newspapers, magazines and reports which are digitized, stored and indexed through a limited-access database.
While one might use the internet or a search engine to find these databases, deeper access to them requires registration. You are still online, but you are no longer on the internet. You are in a library.


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