Poke in the eye

Over at Science Library Pad, Richard Akerman starts an argument: "To put it more concisely, either your research library becomes part of the E-Science Cyberinfrastructure, or it gets paved over."

The post is here. The end of the article also links to a bunch of his other recent provocative posts. The whole set of posts and the associated comments on the main post are very nteresting, more or less a challenge to academic and research libraries to change or disappear.

Now, a lot of what he says I agree with and have published views on over the years. Online is the way to go, it's inevitable, it's what everyone wants, but to say that libraries and librarians have, over the years, been nothing but glorified storage closets for print journals is to me a little insulting. I'm not sure why he feels the need to use a phrase so guaranteed to raise hackles and piss people off as "paved over." I just wonder. These posts scream the "I don't use libraries, everyone must be just like me, so no needs to use libraries, pave'em over" type of attitude that is so prevalent among the less subtle posters on places like /. and other factions of the hardcore techie community (I know, remember, I grew up there) which can be so off-putting. It speaks of a massive chip on the shoulder.

Not sure if Akerman is a librarian or if he's ever actually been in one (as far as I know, neither is a prerequisite for working at CISTI), but he seems to have a very narrow definition of what libraries can and should do. He also seems to be a bit unaware that, yes, academic and research libraries are facing a huge challenge to redefine ourselves but we're trying and we think we're going to succeed. And oddly enough, our "brand" as a place (physical and, in the future, virual) to facilate conversation and collaboration is going to be it.