From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World

Citation

Line, M.B. (2001), "From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World", Library Management, Vol. 22 No. 1/2, pp. 103-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2001.22.1_2.103.2

The two books discussed here are the first in a series “Digital libraries and electronic publishing”, edited by Arms, whose Digital Libraries claims on the dust jacket to be the “first (book) to provide an integrated overview of the field” (of digital libraries). (I would have thought Lesk’s (1997) book Practical Digital Libraries had a strong claim). We all have some idea of what electronic publishing is, though definitions vary, but what exactly is a digital library?

Arms defines it as “a managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network”. The main elements are accumulation (“collection” implies more organisation than is always manifest), and access, with some degree of organisation of both, in terms of indexing, protocols, etc. In fact, it seems to be little different from an electronic database of literature. I cannot see this as any sort of library, even if the word is stretched to breaking point.

Borgman devotes a whole chapter to this question of definition, concluding that:

…the term “digital library” has multiple meanings. These definitions cluster around two themes. From a research perspective, digital libraries are content collected and organized on behalf of user communities. From a library‐practice perspective digital libraries are institutions or organizations that provide information services in digital forms.

My own view is similar to two that she quotes: Battin (1998) is quoted as rejecting the term on the grounds that it is “dangerously misleading”, and Greenberg (1998):

comments that the term … may even be an oxymoron: that is, if a library is a library, it is not digital; if a library is digital, it is not a library.

It seems to me bad in principle to use terms that are unclear and imprecise, more specifically in this case because using the term “library” grossly understates the differences from what we think of as libraries. A true digital library would be a place which holds and provides all material exclusively in digital form, which is certainly what neither Arms nor Borgman have in mind, though both deal with what existing libraries will be or do in a digital age. That said, I use the term here, with all its uncertainties, because it would be impossibly difficult to review the books if I explained every occurrence of the term in the sense in which I think it was intended.

Both books are concerned with material in digital form and access to it. In spite of the dust‐jacket claim for Arms’ book, it is not so much an overview of digital libraries as a thorough account of the technical components and organisation of the infrastructure and elements of digital information systems. Most of the literature on such topics has been written either by library‐ or information‐oriented people who have educated themselves in the computer field or by computer people with at best a partial understanding of the library and information world. Arms’ book is clearly the work of a computer expert – he is now Professor of Computing at Cornell University – but it is apparent that the author also knows a great deal about libraries, and so he straddles the two fields with ease (he founded D‐Lib Magazine). (His first deep acquaintance with libraries was in 1970‐1971, when he worked as one of the team I headed on the government‐funded study into the possible applications of automation to what became shortly afterwards the British Library.)

The book is strongly US‐biased; his examples are drawn almost exclusively from the USA. This is a pity from a cisatlantic viewpoint, especially as Arms (who is half‐English) knows the UK scene well. It may help US sales, but it reduces its value somewhat for the UK and the European continent, whose numerous achievements seem (in the now familiar tradition of US works) to go largely unrecognised; UK examples are the work of UKOLN, the conversion of the British Library catalogue, and the fast developing network of public libraries.

Arms clearly has at his fingertips a vast amount of knowledge, both theoretical and practical, the latter based on a great deal of hands‐on experience, at Carnegie Mellon University and elsewhere. As one would expect of someone with such a background, he is very strong on the technical aspects. He is also good on the legal aspects, though these are discussed from a US angle (understandably, since he could not cover all countries). In particular, there are very thorough and clear explanations of technical matters. For example, chapter 2 is a splendid explanation of the Internet and the Web, and chapters 7‐13 are admirable throughout in their clear and authoritative accounts of encoding, descriptive metadata, etc. There will be few who, however well informed they are, will not be grateful for the clarification of many issues and for filling in gaps in their knowledge. This is not to say that coverage is complete. One important issue that is not dealt with, where important progress has been made in recent years, is seemingly (to the user) unified access to a range and variety of databases.

There are numerous panels – “each addressing a significant aspect of digital libraries, technology, application, or research” – which are said in the Preface to be the “heart of the book”. This is not true: the panels deal in detail with various topics that are touched on more lightly in the main text. If the main text is the body, the panels are enlarged veins and small bones, rather than fragments of heart. That does not in the least diminish their usefulness. What diminishes their readability is the fact that they are in smaller type on a grey background – presumably the publisher’s decision, and a strange one in view of their stated importance.

The structure of the book leaves something to be desired, especially in the earlier chapters. There is some overlap, not all of it necessary (e.g. HTML is discussed on pp. 23‐5 and again on pp. 175‐7). The contents of chapter 4 (“Innovation and research”) overlap to some extent with comments in other chapters, in which they could easily have been incorporated. Related topics are occasionally scattered, e.g. economic issues are dealt with in two or three places. The headings of some chapters do not seem to fit the contents: e.g. chapter 5, “Libraries and publishers” has little to do with publishers, and less to do with the relationships between the two. A much fuller contents page, giving all the sub‐headings and sub‐subheadings, would help readers to navigate the book.

Arms is rather unfair to libraries in criticising them (p. 57) for lack of innovation, since they cannot normally borrow for investment, nor even carry over much money from one year to the next, and they dare not (even if their authorities would allow them) take risks with public money; nor, except in the USA, is there much tradition of support from the private sector or alumni, though it might be noted that the BL has had very substantial help in kind from the computer industry. In my experience, parent bodies are generally much more cautious and conservative than libraries. (A useful sort of coda to the book on “automated digital libraries” can be found in a recent article by Arms (2000)).

The index is very short (three pages) and seriously inadequate, for both generic and specific terms (there are no entries for, e.g. buildings, consortia, legal issues, Berners‐Lee, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Carnegie Mellon University, etc. etc.). Even the useful Glossary is incomplete; for example, CNRI (which Arms used to work for) is not included; the only place one can find – with difficulty, since it is not in the index – what it stands for is in a panel on p. 195. There are also a few grammatical errors; Arms seems to have a particular propensity for singular subjects with plural verbs and vice versa. There are also some irritating misprints (including our old friend “pubic libraries”, which set me wondering what digital pubic libraries might be like).

Borgman’s book is quite different. For one thing, it has a 40‐page list of references and an excellent 14‐page subject index – unfortunately, personal names are not indexed (why not?). There are helpful summaries at the end of each chapter. She gives quite generous attention to the UK and Europe (she too knows both well). I found no solecisms and no misprints. A flaw that both books have in common is due to a publisher’s decision: there are three levels of heading and subheading, but distinctions between them are not immediately obvious (main headings are in bold, followed by a line space, subheadings in bold with no line space, sub‐subheadings in italics).

The differences are far greater than those mentioned. Whereas Arms’ book is “hard”, mostly solid fact (and is weakest where it is “softest”), Borgman’s is mostly “soft”, dealing with difficult social and psychological issues and debates. In contrast to Arms, she approaches her subject as a very computer‐literate information expert. Her subtitle, “Access to information in the networked world”, is what her book is really about. As for a “global information infrastructure”, which we are presumably moving towards at a rapid pace, this “consists of a technical framework of computing and communications technologies, information content, services, and people, all of which interact in complex and often unpredictable ways”. She sees a great need to link computer people with librarians and theorists with practitioners, to avoid the problems caused by working and thinking in separate boxes. She notes that technology is adopted and used in ways that were neither expected nor intended, and that there is need for better interaction.

One of her main concerns is with behavioural aspects of “digital libraries”: problems of access, organisation, user interfaces, user needs and behaviours (plural because every person has his/her own behaviour). In the process it ranges quite widely, discussing at some length, for example, information‐seeking behaviour in general. The headings of chapters 4‐6 are indicative: “Books, bytes, and behavior”, “Why are digital libraries hard to use?”, and “Making digital libraries easier to use”. (She does not mention the sheer badness of many Web sites: I recently spent half an hour wandering round the Web site of a famous US institution before I found what I wanted – which was simply its postal address). Her discussion forms a big contrast with chapter 8 of Arms, “User interfaces and usability”, which is actually devoted almost entirely to user interfaces.

Of particular value is her close analysis of Odlyzko’s (1995) much‐quoted paper on electronic journals as the (only) future journals, in which she queries many of his statements and assumptions. She discusses why people prefer paper. She is throughout concerned with the need to design systems round users, rather than expecting people to adapt to whatever systems are provided. I was a little surprised that she does not mention the possibility (probability in some subject areas) of fragmentation or decomposition of documents: it is possible to get the section or paragraph of a paper that contains the information that is really wanted, and equally easy to present material in bit‐sized chunks rather than articles now that the constraints of paper publication are not inescapable (Line, 1986) – why bother to expand an idea or the results of an experiment into an article when they can be presented raw?

Her chapter 7, “Whither, or wither, libraries?”, is mostly devoted to a discussion of what libraries are and what they might be in a digital age. This is by now a rather well‐worn area, and the chapter is chiefly valuable in synthesising various views and positions. The discussion is inconclusive; she clearly believes that libraries will continue to be useful, indeed necessary, and identifies some of the main issues they face, but no clear visions of their possible futures are set out. It seems odd that no mention is made of the notion of the public library as a main element in lifelong learning.

Borgman proposes a “global digital library” as a construct to encompass digital libraries that are connected to, and accessible through, the global information infrastructure. A dream awaits us – provision of “access to information in all the world’s languages, to all people, all the time”. How to get from individual digital libraries (which have problems enough of their own) to a global system is the subject of the last two chapters. There are huge problems of data interchange, retrieval across different media, languages, cultures, and levels of sophistication – of achieving interoperability of systems, software and files. Standards are all‐important – but in spite of numerous efforts to agree standards in various areas, progress has been disappointing. Scaling up to handle the colossal increase in provision and use involves, as Borgman says, economic, social, legal and political issues as well as technical ones (she gives a telling fact: the Internet supported 2,000 computers in 1985, 70 million in 1999).

Embedded in the final chapter is a 22‐page case study of Eastern and Central Europe. This, while it illustrates her breadth of concern and is very interesting in its own right, is a little intrusive in the context, and might better have been included as an Appendix. Another mild irritation is her analytical thoroughness, which extends sometimes to dealing with issues in almost pedantic detail; for example, she discusses the meanings of “infrastructure”, “access” and “information”. However, if this is a fault it is one in the right direction, and in welcome contrast to the imprecision of some writings on the subject.

Borgman is neither wildly optimistic about the future of digital libraries nor in any way conservative:

In view of the undisputed magnitude of some … developments, it is reasonable to speak of a new world emerging. It is not reasonable, however, to conclude that these changes are absolute, that they will affect all people equally, or that no prior practices or institutions will carry over to a new world.

If she seems at times to be accused of sitting on the fence, that is because the shape of the landscape around is very far from clear, and the fence, uncomfortable though it might be at times, is preferable to a choice of fields with unpredictable bulls in them. Also, she is not pressing any particular case, but rather presenting a balanced view of all the issues, including much broader ones than most authors attempt to address. Her book is a most readable, interesting, thought‐provoking, wide‐ranging work, which it would repay anyone concerned with the subject to read – especially those who think that the transition from old to new is simple and straightforward, and that all of the old can be left behind.

My view of the Arms book too is very positive; the relatively minor flaws can easily be corrected for a subsequent edition. If, as I hope, it is updated from time to time, it may come to be recognised, not so much as a classic, but as an invaluable source of authoritative information on “digital libraries”.

Both of these books are strongly recommended. Let us hope that the remainder of the series maintains this high quality.