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[Fwd: [alis] "A disturbing light cast on librarianship's "core" respo]



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>From SRRT List.. brings up important issues.

Here's a letter (corrected version) I've written to ALA Council about
Nicholson Baker's article "Deadline" in the July 24,2000 "New Yorker".
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Dear ALA Councilors,,

As some of you already must know and others will have heard soon enough,
there is a scathing, disturbing article by Nicholson Baker in the current
"New Yorker" (7/24/2000, p 48-) about the dereliction of responsibilities
by
the library profession with respect to the preservation of the complete
historic record and our stewardship of the human birthright of ideas and
their embodiments, in their original formats, to the best of our ability.

Entitled "Deadline" it regards the literal "trashing of America's
newspapers" by the libraries of record, including the British Library, the
Library of Congress,  the NYPL Research Library, other major research
institutions as well as local, regional and state libraries of all kinds.

He shows how, beginning in 1950, with the wild enthusiasm for microfilm,
embraced zealously by the management of the Library of Congress, and
proceeding to spread everywhere at an ever faster pace (now fueled by the
added enthusiasm about how everything is going to be "scanned" (from
microfilm?) and available on the Web), that the actual physical newspapers
of the post-1870 period,in all their colorfulness, unique artifactual
significance,impact,
browsability etc.  have been systematically trashed, destroyed in
reproduction, discarded or sold off, and replaced, regardless of the actual
physical condition of the bound runs, with microfilm or microfiche and with
no complete paper back-up ANYWHERE.

The idea was that the post 1870's newspapers were "deteriorating' (what
isn't?) but his investigation shows that the major considerations have had
to do with space saving and that perfectly fine,bound sets of our most
important newspapers,in reasonable states of preservation and with a
shelf-life, under properconditions, which in many cases would rival most
books, all have had
substited for them copies on reels of low-resolution, sometimes illegible,
monochrome, and also physically/chemically unstable microfilm (which is
browsable only by people with nerves of steel). Incomplete, unreadable,
microfilm runs have replaced complete sets of the real thing.The real
things are being destroyed, wholesale.

The article in the New Yorker's current issue is another indictment by
admitted library-lover/muckraker, novelist/journalist Nicholson Baker, of
our profession's concern for the "bottom line", the giving of the
appearance of with-it-ness, and of savvy kowtowing to political/economic
expediency, over and against the professional responsibility to resist the
destructive forces which threaten to create gaps and blurs in the human
record,trends which are the results of unquestioning acceptance of
corporate influences,of the increasing monopolization of ownership of
information resources, and the irresitableness of "virtualization" of
public space and of artifactual authenticity.

His other forays into this arena were his work about the implications of
the destruction of our card catalogs,and his exposes of the SFPL's large
scale, irresponsible "weeding" of books in order to fit into their new
accomodations which seemed to have more important purposes than housing the
printed collection.

It is embarassing and depressing that a non-librarian has called on the
conscience of the library world, in work aimed at a level at which our most
central functions and beliefs are concerned, and we have never risen, as a
profession or an association, to the challenges he has previously posed,
except with the spokespeople for instituions crafting bureaucratic
excuses and management-styled rationalizations.We have never engaged this
extraordinary man and what he represents.  This time once again he is
saying "stem the tide" before it's too late. See if you don't think, as I
do, that we have a need to examine how, in light of his call, we  can and
must  review, rethink and renew our commitment to what librarianship is all
about.

I cannot summarize the richness of Baker's argument or capture the pathos
of his desperate account as he tries,almost singlehabdledly, and at great
personal effort and expense, to "save" the few surving intact copies of
runs of
major newspapers through efforts of his own to acquire them before they are
sold to dealers who cut them up for re-sale as birthday knicknacks, etc.

ALA Councilors must read it for themselves. The "Heads" must read it and
think of something other than clever justifications for disatrous policies.
Baker must be engaged, openly, honestly, constructively and the
implications of his story, "Dealine" must be thought through. I urge us
all to take it seriously, especially as he has exposed to public scrutiny,
in brilliant  prose and in a major,widely-read journal of high repute, and,
what's more,as an advocate - a friend - of libraries,  a seamy side of our
profession's behavior which is more undermining of the public image of
librarianship and of its necessity than all the negative efforts "Family
Friendly Librarie" and local book challengers.


Sincerely,
Mark C. Rosenzweig
ALA Councilor at large




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Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Coordinator of Community Outreach, College of Arts & Sciences
Professor, School of Library & Information Science,
University of South Florida, CIS 1040,
Tampa, FL 33620    813-974-9182
http://www.cas.usf.edu/lis/faculty/mccook.html     kmccook@chuma.cas.usf.edu


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