Presentation

FEA/USP’s Teaching and Learning Lab is dedicated to the development, transmission, application, evaluation and consolidation of experiences and methodologies oriented towards higher education courses in Administration, Accountancy and Economics.

And who digitalizes the librarian?

by Carlos Orsi

It was a headline in the New York Times: Google closed an agreement to digitalize, index and offer, online, parts of the collection of some of the biggest libraries in the world, including the university libraries at Oxford and Harvard and the New York public library.

It may take decades for the project to get ready, and the digital collection will be “censored” so as to avoid undue access to works that have not passed into the public domain yet, but the initiative definitely represents a revolution in cultural access and dissemination. Forecasting its exact effects is very difficult – that would be like looking at the sketches for the first fuel engine and imagining air quality alerts – but an academic boom may be expected, with millions of students who are suddenly able to check primary research sources, any place, anytime.

One collateral effect will be the vulgarization of specialized knowledge. Colored facsimiles from pages of the Gutenberg Bible will illustrate 4^th grade papers about the origin of the press (actually, that can happen today. Just look for “Gutenberg Bible” on Google, or click on the second link below).

One specific type of intimidation, that is, intellectual intimidation, will become harder. Perhaps popular culture will be invaded by a citation fever. With all libraries close at hand, we will have a textual sampler: clipping and pasting phrases by prophets, philosophers and scientists from Antiquity to the 19th century will be the latest fashion in 2030.

Another plausible consequence seems to be an increase in amateurism and informal learning: anyone with a specific interest or eccentric theory will be able to acquire free and fast knowledge on the classics. One noticeable effect of informal learning, on any subject, is that it creates gaps which formal learning would fill, but that it can also produce totally unexpected points of focus, specializations and idea. And a lot of crazy things, ranging from artworks to conspiracy theories.

However, all of this points towards the worsening of a problem that already exists today: who seeks the seekers? Or, better: how do you know in what book, webpage, blog or entry you can find the information you are looking for? You have a question and the answer is definitely out there. But where?

This role is normally played by human beings – teacher, instructor, master, friend or librarian. And this function will be difficult to find on-line. But, when there is a need, there is a market. What we may get is the on-line equivalent of graduate advisors.

I suspect that Wikipedia, or something based on it, will play a fundamental role in this future of digital collections. One could imagine a hierarchy: from the search to the encyclopedia, from the encyclopedia to the bibliography, from the bibliography to the libraries – and all that without even leaving the cyber cafe.