Query
So I was at a teleconference called Next Generation Librarianship: Where do we go from here? which I thought would be about the future of libraries, but was actually about the perceived generation gap in librarians. It was pretty useless, but this is not the point. As part of this PowerPoint/live web chat/annoying use of technology for its own sake, a slide was thrown up to illustrate future challenges. It read (and I paraphrase, sorry): "There has been more change in the last 80 years than in the previous millennium..."
I disagree. Vehemently. Others?
posted by bookgirl @ 9:02 PM
9 Comments:
What do you mean by change, oh Nerdra?
Will there be a new TV show to help us with these library changes? "Library Trek: the Next Generation". Engage!
do you mean change in library sciences over the past 80 years versus the past millenia? if so, it seems like sure, that's true. (i'll have to ask one of my librarian friends for confirmation.)
if you mean change in society in general, i'd say absolutely. we have like 10 more flavors of diet mountain dew than they had even 30 years ago.
no, pete, not in libraries, in the world at large. i posit that the beloved internet would not have been possible without gutenberg. good point about the drink, though.
beth, i don't know what they meant by change. maybe that there's more stuff around than there used to be... who can say.
one of molly's classmates has a recording of peter and the wolf narrated by patrick stewart. engage indeed.
In terms of technology, they may be right. Nuclear weapons. Biological weapons. Computers, internet, wireless technology. Heat rays that can dissipate angry mobs without actually hurting anyone. Remote control combat planes. Artificial hearts. Organ transplants. Space travel. Maybe not a cure for cancer, but successful treatment for a lot of it. So much information flying at us from all over that we need tools to help us filter it out and make sense of it. There are so many databases in the world that there is a whole practice called data mining where professionals try to glean useful information from it to interpret what it all means.
Politically, I'm not sure, but there's been alot. Two world wars causing major shifts in Europe and the position of the U.S. in the world. The rise and fall of communism. The fall out of post colonialsim and all the change and unrest that causes.
I don't know, there's been a lot.
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This line of questioning treads pretty close to the "are things worse than they used to be" line that gets me in trouble with some of you. I have to agree with David--and then add that all of this technological addition might make us feel superior about ourselves--I mean, isn't there just a little self-congratulation in the statement about the past 80 years being the changiest in All Of Human History? As if to say "aren't we special--that we have to put up with the burdens that come with that"?
I think that most of the changes aren't really felt or appreciated by us yet. Things are happening to us, by us, under the surface.
Yes, there is definitely a bit of the "we're the best! we have it the hardest! we're so smart!" about a statement like that that i cannot support - such exceptionalism drives me crazy. david's got some points re: technology and stuff, but none of that would be possible without the discoveries and developments before. to wit:
- email/internet/etc. vs. printing press
- modern markets and currency
- international trade routes
- big sailing ships
- clean water
- representative democracy (for what that's worth; stupid oligarchy)
you know, some good stuff happened in the last thousand years.
Yes, we're all standing on giants' shoulders, of course. I didn't pick up on the self-congratulatory tone, but I get it. My feeling is more that there is so much crap going on that sometimes I just want to sit in a dark room and listen to music (no, not on my iPod) and forget about all of it. Just like other people who have experienced great change in history, I think we are only partly aware of the magnitude. We can't see it all because it is so close to us.
Yes, giants' shoulders, but the giants are like that illustration on Hobbes' Leviathan...one big guy made of lots of little guys.
And I'm not saying lots of stuff isn't happening now...god knows it is. But it's a matter of perspective, and statements such as the initial one don't allow for that.
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