Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet

Citation

Raward, R. (2004), "Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet", Online Information Review, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 167-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520410539585

The Internet is a mixed blessing for libraries and librarians. On the one hand, it provides opportunities to add services and expand collections; on the other, it has increased user expectations and contributed to techno stress. Today, the Internet is challenging librarians” ability to select, threatening the survival of the book, necessitating continuous retraining, presenting new problems of access and preservation, putting new demands on budgets, and embroiling information professionals in legal controversies. In Net Effects, librarian, journalist and Internet guru Marylaine Block examines the issues and brings together a wealth of insights and solutions. Almost 50 articles by dozens of imaginative librarians – expertly selected, annotated, and integrated by the editor – suggest practical and creative ways to deal with the range of Internet side effects, regain control of the library, and avoid being blindsided by technology.

The Internet has unquestionably been a good thing for libraries, allowing them to offer a collection of news and documents and art and music no single library could ever have afforded. It has allowed librarians to deliver magazines, newspapers, books, catalogues, and even virtual reference, 24/7. Yet there are still difficulties and side effects from the Internet that librarians have experienced in the last few years that have caused unintended consequences.

However, for every problem that may confront a librarian as a result of new technologies, other librarians have been there before and have come up with a dazzling variety of solutions. Some are big, complicated, and expensive; some are quick and dirty and cheap. But whatever comes librarians can handle them. Net Effects is an anthology of some of the solutions.

“Problems are simply opportunities in disguise, and we librarians have plunged enthusiastically, even joyfully, into solving them”, Block says. This is an ideas book that can be read straight through, or dipped into to see how libraries are dealing with a particular issue that's bothering them.

The ten chapters in this book are formatted with a statement of the problem, followed by some possible solutions. The book is intended to be read in conjunction with a Web site (http://marylaine.com/book/index.html) that is maintained by Block, amplifying the book's contents and which will be added to on a regular basis.

Few texts aim at solving real problems facing the information professional today, and Marylaine Block has done an extensive and exhaustive job. I highly recommend this book.