Will librarians be obsolete?

Will computer automated libraries and classrooms be the new wave of the future? On the way home recently, I overheard a few of students talking about the future of libraries & education. One comment that really caught my attention was “one day there will be no teachers, or librarians as everything will be done via the computer. Librarians will become obsolete as we can generate the information off the inter net, and professors lectures will be taped.” I chuckled at the response.





Part of the students comment rings true, but not all of it. If anything, we live in a society that is heavily reliable on information that we get from electronic sources. Depending the career you work, you might needed that information yesterday. What the student did not realize is “how much much of the information we get is it reliable?” If anything, librarians will not become an extinct breed of people, but be the driving force of how the technology is used. Librarians act as a filter who sorts through an endless amount information that we use in our papers and discussions, this is something even a computer cannot do. Librarians are riding the wave of change, and are keeping up with the times by being informed and keeping up with the needs of their customer. This something that even a computer cannot do.

Limitations to e-books for libraries

Libraries to date have to survive in challenging times, from limited budgets to keeping up on the latest technology. The latest problem encounter by libraries has been the limited access they can give to their patrons over e-books. One publisher in the United States has done exactly that, the publisher has limited the borrowing to 26 times a year; the reason cited by the publisher has been over the rightsholder. Rightsholder is the same as the copyright. Authors and publishers have express concerns that the libraries are not doing enough to have proper technology in place that ensures the material from e-books cannot be duplicated and be passed on through other electronic means. 

The copying and distribution problems are nothing new; the problems existed in other industries such as the music and movie industry. In the age of the internet, industries have limited themselves by not been looking at new ways which can stop the copying and distribution of materials. Libraries are not for profit organizations, if anything they help educates the public of what resources are readily available. In a white paper report that was release last year shows that the sales from e-books has stem from people visiting the library. Instead of the industries working the libraries to help curb the problem, they are creating a bigger backlash from the public and its patron’s.

www.overdrive.com/files/PubWhitePaper.pdf