Assignment #1 -Week 1 Readings

Feeding The Beast

Lied Library @ Four Years: Technology Never Stands Still
2004 Information Format Trends: Content, not Containers
Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture

The Lied Library has experienced a number of challenges in maintaining, storing, servicing and installing its technology. For the amount of resources it takes to maintain state-of-the-art technology in UNLV’s leading academic library, ‘feeding the beast’ (39) is an apt term. Needing constant attention, patches, maintenance, hardware replacement, tech support, space, and money, keeping up with ever-evolving technology lands a hefty price tag.
And although access to this type of technology yields great benefits in information retrieval to both to the library and to the end users, the fundamental aspect of a library being a place where all can access information freely seems jeopardized:

“As has oftentimes been experienced in public libraries, community users are not in an academic program and come to surf the web, check their e-mail, and play games, as opposed to “academic” work. Certainly, students pursue such leisure activities as well. In contrast, whereas students often have classes to go to, friends to meet, or a part time job, community users may stay on computers for hours on end, and this is somewhat disheartening when students with legitimate needs are searching for a computer.” (Vaughan 41)

Libraries stand for intellectual freedom and for free access to information for all citizens. To imply that one citizen has legitimate needs over another implies that there is a definite hierarchical system in place. Further illustrating this point, Vaughan states that “In 2005, the [Lied] library plans to limit what internet resources community users can access.” (42)

Clifford Lynch elucidates in his article Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the curriculum for a Digital Culture, when he states that the “legal, social, economic, and ethical issues surrounding the ownership and use of intellectual property,” are areas which should constitute information literacy. It begs the question: along with mastering the operation of the latest technology, shouldn’t we also master the rules by which information is transmitted, organized, authored, etc., and the impact it has in a commerce driven environment?
As print publications become more a notion of our past (2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers) and digital publication becomes the status quo, it is essential that these issues be examined. Especially now, when the boundaries of intellectual property rights, and the rights of the individual to access information freely, are being tested.



Muddiest Point

As information grows as a viable commodity, is it going to be the power of the consumer that dictates what direction libraries will take in the future?



Week 1 Posts:

Nicole Plana's Blog

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