The Digital Factor in Library and Information Services

Citation

Parry, F. (2004), "The Digital Factor in Library and Information Services", Online Information Review, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 81-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520410522501

The Digital Factor in Library and Information Services is the third in a series of yearbooks that delivers a “state‐of‐the‐art” report on important themes within the library and information world. G.E. Gorman, the general editor, introduces this edition by effectively abstracting the 16 differently authored chapters. He has divided these into six themed sections; “In praise of the digital revolution”, “Institutional models and finance”, “Books and readers”, “Reference services”, “Collection management”, “Standards and technology”. Most chapters can be read in isolation, but the book reads well in the traditional linear fashion with most aspects of the subject being adequately covered.

Certain themes recur throughout the book. The issue of digital versus print has a chapter devoted to it by Lorna Peterson and crops up in numerous other places, including Catherine Sheldrick Ross’s contemplation on the nature of reading in the digital age and Shirley Hyatt’s reminder that print is not always as accessible and user‐friendly as many traditionalists would have us believe. Access versus ownership is similarly contentious and is dealt with in some detail by Marilyn Deegan in her excellent opening chapter, and Simon Tanner who considers the whole issue of fair pricing, licensing and legal problems for libraries. Cost figures prominently in many contexts, most noticeably in the sections on collection management and models and finance. It is probably true to say that never has so much information been available to such a wide audience. The fact that access to information is not free, however, raises the spectre of the digital divide, an issue which is widely acknowledged in many chapters of this book.

Looming large throughout this work is the question of the role of the library and librarians, or information workers, in the new digital age. There is much talk of libraries and librarians as “agents of change”, “intermediaries” or “facilitators”. Peter Brophy’s chapter on new models of the library in the digital era gets to grips with this subject particularly well. Brophy suggests whole new avenues of approach and a complete rethink of the role of the library in providing information services. Tellingly, he goes all the way back to the pre‐digital days of Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science to restate the original purpose of a library in facilitating access to knowledge. Discussing the role of the library as intermediary in another context, Sherry Shiuan Su provides an insightful look at Web‐based reference services.

There are one or two omissions. I was surprised that no one, particularly in the section on digital reference services, mentioned the growing use of Web logs in libraries as tools for sponsoring virtual information communities. Some of the chapters are also a little brief. Nonetheless, this is a very useful collection of essays, and the references – many appropriately pointing to digital sources – will be of use to those who wish to follow up various topics of interest.