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The Public-Access Computer Systems Review
Volume 4, Number 5 (1993) ISSN 1048-6542
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CONTENTS
PAPERS FROM THE NINTH TEXAS CONFERENCE ON LIBRARY AUTOMATION,
HOUSTON, TEXAS, APRIL 2-3, 1993, PART I
COMMUNICATIONS
Dreams, Devices, Niches, and Edges: Coping with the Changing
Landscape of Information Technology
By Walt Crawford (pp. 5-21)
To retrieve this file: GET CRAWFORD PRV4N5 F=MAIL
Although some technological visionaries would like us to believe
that their predictions must come true, the future is not
inevitable. We should honor the dreamers, but harvest their
dreams selectively. "Technolust" is common, but it can cloud our
judgement. It's important to remember that many innovations
fail. There are no universal technological solutions, but there
are many niches that different technologies compete to fill. By
choosing the right niche, everyone can be on some technical
leading edge, but there is often value in staying on the
"trailing edge." If they don't temper their predictions with
realism, prophets of the electronic library can do more harm than
good.
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The Virtual Library: Pitfalls, Promises, and Potential
By Dana Rooks (pp. 22-29)
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The virtual library is not the ultimate answer to everyone's
information needs. It is merely another step in a dynamic and
evolutionary process. The traditional print library and
traditional library services will not disappear. But, as
librarians, we must accept and adapt to the introduction of new
techniques and systems. We must recognize the enormous potential
of the virtual library, address the issues involved in its
creation, and take a leadership role in integrating these new
systems and services into our libraries.
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The Public-Access Computer Systems Review
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Editor-in-Chief
Charles W. Bailey, Jr.
University Libraries
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-2091
(713) 743-9804
LIB3@UHUPVM1 (BITNET) or LIB3@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet)
Associate Editors
Columns: Leslie Pearse, OCLC
Communications: Dana Rooks, University of Houston
Reviews: Roy Tennant, University of California, Berkeley
+ Page 3 +
Editorial Board
Ralph Alberico, University of Texas, Austin
George H. Brett II, Clearinghouse for Networked Information
Discovery and Retrieval
Steve Cisler, Apple Computer, Inc.
Walt Crawford, Research Libraries Group
Lorcan Dempsey, University of Bath
Nancy Evans, Pennsylvania State University, Ogontz
Charles Hildreth, READ, Ltd.
Ronald Larsen, University of Maryland
Clifford Lynch, Division of Library Automation,
University of California
David R. McDonald, Tufts University
R. Bruce Miller, University of California, San Diego
Paul Evan Peters, Coalition for Networked Information
Mike Ridley, University of Waterloo
Peggy Seiden, Skidmore College
Peter Stone, University of Sussex
John E. Ulmschneider, North Carolina State University
Technical Support
Tahereh Jafari, University of Houston
Publication Information
Published on an irregular basis by the University Libraries,
University of Houston. Technical support is provided by the
Information Technology Division, University of Houston.
Circulation: 7,527 subscribers in 57 countries (PACS-L) and 2,061
subscribers in 51 countries (PACS-P).
Back issues are available from LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 (BITNET) or
LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet). To retrieve a cumulative
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The first two volumes of The Public-Access Computer Systems
Review are also available in book form from the American Library
Association's Library and Information Technology Association
(LITA). Volume three is forthcoming. The price of each volume
is $17 for LITA members and $20 for non-LITA members. To order,
contact: ALA Publishing Services, Order Department, 50 East Huron
Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2729, (800) 545-2433.
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The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
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The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C)
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Crawford, Walt. "Dreams, Devices, Niches, and Edges: Coping with
the Changing Landscape of Information Technology." The Public-
Access Computer Systems Review 4, no. 5 (1993): 5-21. To
retrieve this file, send the following e-mail message to
LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU: GET CRAWFORD PRV4N5
F=MAIL.
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1.0 Introduction
As I was flying in to Houston Thursday afternoon, in my personal
helicopter from the arcology that used to be Redwood City, I used
my wrist computer to run some current statistics, with sound and
full-color animation of course, on the final stages of the death
of print. [1] It's pretty much on schedule. Books have already
disappeared, and the last print newspaper will probably cease
publication this July. Supermarkets still sell something called
mass-market magazines, but they're mostly semi-pornographic VR
cubes, except for the few old-fashioned 3-D rags on digital
paper. Well, there is one exception: all the paper that used to
go into magazines, newspapers, and books is being used for the
300 monthly, weekly, and daily magazines offering reviews and
hints to make TopView and NextStep Pentium run better together.
Awake now? Well, if you think any part of that opening view
mirrors reality now, or is likely to within the next decade--or
within my lifetime, for that matter--then you won't be happy with
this talk. But then, why are you here in the flesh anyway? For
full-blooded futurists, schlepping your body to a conference is
hopelessly out of date. If it isn't on the network, it isn't
worth bothering with. Right? But, well, you're here, so on with
the talk.
2.0 Renouncing Inevitability
I read a lot about visions of the information future; how can you
avoid it? I look for one particular word when people write about
the future. That word is "inevitable." To me, the word has
three fundamental meanings:
o First, it means that the case being argued is weak. If
the logic and facts will sway reasonable listeners,
there's no reason to claim inevitability. But when you
don't have the facts on your side, it's always good to
stop discussion by saying, "Well, it's inevitable."
+ Page 6 +
o Second, it frequently means that the speaker knows that
listeners may find the prediction unappealing. If
something is desirable, we hardly need to be told it's
inevitable.
o Third, it usually means that the prediction will be
very expensive, and that the speaker wants to take
resources away from other things.
In my experience, "inevitable" is usually part of a would-be
self-fulfilling prophecy: something a speaker or writer wants to
see for his or her own reasons. I find the word to be an almost
irresistible invitation to start poking for the flaws in the
prediction--and they're usually not hard to find.
One of the slogans for this speech might be "Renounce
Inevitability." Don't use it in your projections, and don't
accept it from other people.
Let's look at the four key words in the title: dreams,
devices, niches, and edges. After that, I'd like to spend a few
minutes on hopes and dangers.
3.0 Dreams
We don't lack for dreams of the future, and that's probably a
good thing. Prophets and visionaries can also be called
dreamers. It's not an insult by any means. I believe in
dreamers. We need them, and we should honor them. F. W.
Lancaster began dreaming of a paperless future many years ago.
Ted Nelson dreamed of hypertext years before there were personal
computers; his vision of universal hypertext even carries the
dreamlike name Xanadu. Way back in the late 1960s, Fred Kilgour
left Yale to pursue his dream of a nationwide system of shared
cataloging.
Michael Hart dreams that a trillion texts will be used
thanks to his efforts, with good old ASCII as the basis for the
dream. Steve Jobs dreamed that the cute little Macintosh would
become the universal computer--and, later, that NeXT computers
would become even more universal than Macintoshes. There are
many others, in and out of our field.
We need dreams. We need dreamers. We need visionaries and
prophets. But we also need to deal with dreams coherently.
+ Page 7 +
3.1 Harvesting the Dreams
Ideally, we should be able to harvest the dreams: taking from
them the best that they offer, while setting aside the chaff.
For there is almost always chaff. Every dream constitutes a
simplification; every dream focuses on one aspect of the future.
Almost every dream carries with it the seeds of a nightmare. We
need to recognize the simplifications inherent in most
projections. We need to harvest the dreams, not adopt them on
faith. Honor the dreamers; don't believe in the dreams without
placing them in context.
Take the most nearly realized of those dreams, that of a
single national shared bibliographic facility. Would we really
be better off if OCLC was, in fact, a single universal
bibliographic network, the only source for bibliographic data?
Would you be happy with the notion that OCLC's management had
total control over that aspect of your budget--or RLG's
management, for that matter? Probably not--and yet, OCLC is
actually a very narrow dream from a quarter-century past. It
deals with a little patch of the information landscape, certainly
far narrower than the vast reaches projected for Project Xanadu
or the universal scholar's workstation.
The Apple dream of a graphical computing future really began
with Lisa, and reached remarkable real-world fruition with the
Macintosh--but it did not, and will not, sweep away other PCs.
Is that loss of a dream a bad thing? You Macintosh users: do you
honestly believe Macintosh prices would be lower if Apple
dominated the personal computing marketplace? Would color
monitors for Macs be cheaper or better if Macintoshes could not
now use boring old VGA displays? I think not.
Dreams tempered with reality produce progress: never simple,
almost never linear, but frequently quite impressive. Honor the
dreamers. Harvest the dreams. But always be aware that dreams--
or projections, or visions, or (God help us) new paradigms--
almost always ignore the complexities of life. If your own good
sense says that a dream isn't plausible as it stands, or that it
would in fact be a nightmare if carried out, believe in yourself
more than in the dream. One person's utopia is another person's
dystopia--and any utopia, frankly, would probably be a pretty
unpleasant or boring place to live.
+ Page 8 +
4.0 Devices
On to devices, the things with which we move. Not necessarily
forward, at least not all the time, but we move nonetheless. I
may spend more time on devices than they really deserve--but
then, they're always fun. Technological dreams depend on devices
to make them real--but we tend to place unwarranted faith in
devices.
4.1 Technolust
I call it technolust, and I'm prone to it once in a while, just
like most people (particularly most men, I hasten to add). As a
few of you know, I'm eating a little crow about trailing-edge
computing and my dislike for Windows, since my new home computer
is only trailing edge by Silicon Graphics standards and this talk
was written using Word for Windows. And I must admit that I
really, really like my new computer--CD-ROM drive, big high-
resolution monitor, huge high-speed hard disk and all.
But I'm basically a tool-user. An avid tool-user at times,
but a tool-user. A true technophile would certainly bring a
notebook computer to this conference--or, better yet, a Personal
Digital Assistant like Apple's Newton. And the heart of the
technophile was beating strong when PACS-L had suggestions that
future library users would be wandering around with PDAs in hand,
accessing the library's catalog through infrared links, scanning
in pieces from books on the shelf, and so on. We can get rid of
those clunky terminals! Of course, if some poor slob doesn't own
a PDA--but then, libraries aren't really for the common folk.
Are they?
Apple's Newton is new enough so that it's only a little
obsolete. It isn't on the market yet, and there's no firm date
set for it. The price will be "something under $1,000," which
certainly suggests that every library user should have at least
one of them handy, doesn't it? Of course, Newton may be a poor
example; as I understand it, it's basically a personal calendar
and appointment book with room for note-taking.
Personally, I use a DayTimer for calendar and appointment
needs. Costs about $18 a year; then again, I could probably get
by with a $4.95 Weekly Minder. I understand that there's now an
electronic DayTimer program to run on pen-operated portable
computers, actually developed with the company's cooperation.
This $200 program, when combined with a $1,000 computer, will
give you all the functionality of a $20 DayTimer, as long as you
keep replacing batteries.
+ Page 9 +
But why would you want to do that? If you suffer from
terminal technolust, the answer is that everything's better if a
computer is involved--as might be the case with the person who
opined on PACS-L that it's better to have a thousand technical
failures in the marketplace than do things the same old way.
The heart of technolust is an unwillingness to deal with the
real world. New is always better; technology is always a good
thing; once something works, it's time to look for the next new
wave. But we live in the real world. Some of you probably still
use something less than 486 CPUs on DOS machines--or, horror of
horrors, use DOS itself rather than Windows 3.1 or OS/2 2.0.
Some of you Mac users don't have Quadra systems. My guess is
that at least half of you don't have high-speed laser printers at
home, that perhaps more than half don't have true-color printers;
that one or two of you don't have V.32bis modems; and that oh,
ten or fifteen of you haven't found it necessary to build a local
area network for your home computers. Is it possible that one or
two of you still live without color monitors at home, or even use
something as crude as an AT-class machine, just because you don't
seem to need anything more for home computing?
Yes, I'm guilty. My trailing-edge budget suddenly caught up
with leading-edge capabilities, thanks to some folks in South
Dakota, and I took advantage of it. Of course I suffer from
technolust once in a while. I read PC magazines. They try their
best to keep readers in a buying frenzy. But given the realities
of money, time, and other interests, I usually find it easy to
keep under control. So should you.
4.2 The Half-Inch Car
Surely all of you have heard the old chestnut about the pace of
technological change in the computer field. It goes something
like this: If cars had developed the way that computers have, a
Rolls Royce would now cost $2.50 and get 1,000 miles to the
gallon.
Here's the reality check: that Rolls Royce would be one
centimeter long.
We all tend toward hyperbole and oversimplification--and we
need to step back to place trends within broader perspectives.
Technolust looks at each new device and projects all of its
possibilities with none of the drawbacks. Technolust looks at a
three-year growth projection and extends it across a decade,
without noting that the resulting projections make no real-world
sense whatsoever. Technolust makes no distinction between
obsolescent--the state of most real-world devices--and obsolete,
a different thing altogether.
+ Page 10 +
You can plausibly say that anything that has reached the
market is, to some extent, obsolescent: it is probably on the
road toward being replaced by something newer. People are
probably obsolescent; we're just not sure yet what will replace
us. Certainly my new PC is obsolescent: it was available for
sale, a sure sign. Obsolete is something very different: an
obsolete item is no longer useful, having been wholly superseded
by something newer. As one dictionary puts it, "No longer in
use, or outmoded in design, style, or construction." New devices
don't automatically make old ones obsolete.
4.3 Failures and Successes
Here's an unnerving fact you need to remember whenever you
consider marvelous new devices and trends. Most innovations
fail. Sometimes before reaching the market; sometimes very
shortly after; sometimes after a brief blaze of glory; and
sometimes after apparently establishing solid markets.
Libraries have been caught by failures in media, both mass
media and specialized media; we may well be caught by failures in
electronic techniques as well. Remember eight-track tapes, an
apparent success that eventually failed? Remember Beta--or, more
significantly, the half-dozen videocassette systems introduced
before Sony marketed Beta? I'll bet there are libraries that
established Cartrivision or SelectaVision or V-Cord collections,
and many libraries still use U-Matic tapes.
Videodiscs? At least half a dozen systems were attempted,
dating back to 1928; the trail of failures pretty much ends in
1984, when RCA abandoned its dismal CED system. RCA managed to
derail marketing efforts for LaserVision, keeping it from
establishing an early large market share--but Pioneer stuck with
it, and there's some reason to believe that LaserVision will be a
long-term success. (Thanks to the industrial market, it already
is.)
4.4 Information Technology Devices
The record in information technology is no clearer than
elsewhere. Remember ultrafiche and micro-opaques? How about
Cauzin Data Strips, a technology so successful that PC World was
publishing software using the strips for a couple of years? Seen
many 8" diskette drives for personal computers lately--or hard-
sectored diskettes of any size?
+ Page 11 +
I mentioned digital paper in the introduction to this talk.
I remember talk of this medium as the hot new thing something
like a decade ago--and every year or two, we hear that it will
revolutionize storage as soon as it really hits the market. If
it ever does. Now, of course, there's holographic storage. Not
quite ready for market yet, but it will replace everything when
it is. It's inevitable.
OK, CD-ROM was an instantaneous hit. Which is to say that
the standards were established in 1983; the first products, for
libraries, came out in 1984; predictions of instant mass-market
success began in 1987; and those predictions are still being
made. Meanwhile, libraries may still be the largest CD-ROM
market--and we think, rightly, that they represent low
technology. I think CD-ROM will continue to succeed (as a
multiple niche medium, not a mass medium), largely because it
rides on the shoulders of audio CDs, and those should have
another ten to fifteen years left before they're supplanted.
But how could you predict that CD-ROM, from little Philips
with its lousy marketing, would be the successful optical medium?
Around the same time that CD-ROMs came out, 3M announced OROM,
with IBM also involved in its development; in 1988, it looked
like a comer. So did DataROM, Sony's new system from the mid-
1980s. OROM seems to have disappeared without a trace; DataROM
may have mutated into Sony's MiniDisc, a recordable audio medium
that may or may not be suitable for data storage. (If it is, it
will have much less capacity than CD-ROM; it gets its 75-minute
audio capacity by throwing away most of the recorded information
based on computer models of what you can actually hear at any
given moment.) Drexel's LaserCard has been around for four or
five years, at least, succeeding in niche markets and so far
having no apparent mass-market impact.
We have a plethora of sure things on the market now;
predictably, not more than one or two will succeed in any real
way. On the consumer side, there are four or five different
incompatible consumer disc video technologies: VIS, CD-Video, CD-
Interactive, whatever. For PCs, there are the 2.88 MB diskette
drive (well, IBM's behind it, so how can it fail--just like
TopView, the PCjr, Micro Channel Architecture, XGA, and IBM's
other sure winners), the 21 MB floptical drive, several
incompatible removable mass-storage devices (Bernoulli being the
lowest technology and longest lasting of the bunch), and the list
goes on.
+ Page 12 +
4.5 Survival: Not Always Predictable
If you believed some prophets a decade ago, CRTs would be long
gone by now--indeed, the imminent replacement of those old-
fashioned vacuum tubes has been predicted for some two decades
now. They are, to be sure, silly and archaic in terms of general
technological development--but they keep getting better, making a
moving target for replacement technologies. If anything, the gap
between CRTs and thin-screen devices seems to be growing.
Speaking of dead ducks, consider hard disks. I saw several
well-considered projections half a decade back that showed solid-
state memory, with its far superior speed and resistance to
crashing, becoming cheaper than hard disks within five years.
That's true: RAM is now much cheaper than hard disk storage was
five years ago, and even the kind of stable RAM needed for solid-
state disks is about where hard disks were five or six years ago.
But, of course, hard disks are a whole bunch cheaper and faster
now than they were then. I can almost hear the engineers who
have brought down the price of durable RAM: "Well, we made it for
$100/megabyte; what more do you want?" Hmm. Right now, I'm
paying $2-$3 per megabyte for hard disk storage; that seems like
a good target. A tough one, though. Oh, and today's hard disk
drives are at least ten times as durable as those of a few years
ago; indeed, it's now pretty rare for a contemporary disk drive
to suffer a mechanical crash.
4.6 Keys to Dealing with Technolust
I can suggest a few things to think about when dealing with new
devices, new media, and the wonderful projections made for them:
o First, by and large, the new complements the old.
Print did not destroy the oral tradition, although it
extended its reach. Radio news did not destroy
newspapers. Television changed radio, newspapers, and
movies--but didn't destroy any of them. Home video
changed the motion picture business--but motion picture
studios take in more money than ever.
o Second, most new devices fail--and the ones that
succeed aren't always the ones you'd predict.
+ Page 13 +
o Third, new techniques can revive and sustain old
technologies. That explains the continued success of
CRTs and hard disks; it's also why start-up print
publishers can produce fully competitive books far
faster and less expensively than a decade ago.
o Fourth, most people don't adopt new devices because
they're there. They adopt devices because they fulfill
some need, real or imaginary; devices are tools for
scratching itches. If the itch isn't widely felt, or
if marketers can't communicate that this is the best
way to scratch it, the quality of the device just
doesn't matter.
5.0 Niches
The one thing we can be sure of is that the future will be at
least as subtle and complicated as the present. That's not
original, but it's true. The future is not one wave or one solid
thing; it will be a complex set of niches, just like the present-
-only more so. That complexity may be helpful if we recognize it
for what it is. There are no universal solutions, at least
partly because all such solutions presume relatively simple
futures. For that matter, there is not one universal problem.
By recognizing that we are dealing with many niches rather than a
single edge, many currents rather than a single wave, we may be
able to focus on smaller and more solvable problems.
There's not much more to say about niches, except to note
that there's nothing shameful or futile about being in a niche.
A decade ago, LaserVision essentially failed as a consumer
product--but it established a niche in industrial training.
Thanks to that niche, the technology has survived and been
profitable for firms that understood the niche. If LaserVision
was only acceptable as a replacement for videocassettes, then it
was a dismal failure.
If I had to guess which smaller computer companies will
survive into 1994, I would probably include Tri-Star in the list.
They've become specialists, designing high-end systems for CAD
workers and others who need 17" to 20" monitors and systems that
will support them. It won't make Tri-Star a billion dollar
company--but I suspect they know that, and would rather be a
profitable smaller company. They are establishing themselves as
leading suppliers to a niche market: that's a recipe for success,
as long as the niche stays healthy.
+ Page 14 +
Some librarians now decry a future in which libraries won't
be the means by which most people get all of their information.
But libraries have never been the sole, or even the primary,
source of information for people. Good libraries serve many
niches, but they never have served as universal sources, and they
never will. If failing to do that means that libraries are
obsolete, so be it--but nothing else will serve as a universal
source, either.
More to the point, the library is an absurdly simplistic
formulation, as is the patron. The corporate library for a
genetic engineering company has different needs, and serves very
different patrons, than the library I use most often, the
Schaberg branch of the Redwood City Public Library. The
University of California at Berkeley Physics Library fills a very
different niche than the Doe Main Library with its massive
collections in the humanities and social sciences, and should
allocate its funds differently between electronic and print
media. So should the library at Foothill Community College--
which, again, serves very different needs and has very different
patrons.
5.1 Niche Solutions Solve Niche Problems
We need to recognize specific problems, so we can develop or
evolve specific solutions. In the publishing field, for example,
it's simply nonsense to say that "print on paper is too
expensive" or "the economics of paper publishing don't make
sense" or "it no longer makes sense to publish journals in print
form" as generalizations. None of these statements are true in
general.
I'm not here to propose solutions to the problems of
libraries. I have had some radical thoughts as to how you
identify the true problem journals in STM, the ones that really
need to be dealt with in some manner--but I won't bore you with
those thoughts here. Certainly, many people with far more
insight and experience than I can offer have been working on
these problems, and a variety of innovative solutions have been
suggested.
When looking at the proposed solutions, I would suggest a
few cautionary measures:
o First, try to find specific solutions for specific
problems. Some solutions can indeed be generalized--
but the more you generalize a solution, the more likely
it is that you're solving the wrong problem.
+ Page 15 +
o Second, look at all the implications of a solution,
both short-term and long-term. For example, article
delivery as a replacement for little-used subscriptions
makes excellent economic sense--as long as the journals
still have enough subscriptions so that the publishers
don't jack up the cost of articles beyond reason. And
if journals become purely print-on-demand operations,
and are still in the hands of the big international
publishers--well, they can pretty much charge whatever
they want for the articles, can't they?
o Third, think in terms of multiple solutions, not one
massive agenda that succeeds or fails. Personal
computers have succeeded so brilliantly because of
multiplicity and competition. If all the focus had
been on developing the CPU, with one dominant provider
each for video, memory, and mass storage, today's PCs
would be curious beasts indeed, with high-speed CPUs
throttled back by slow displays, slow RAM, and
undersized, slow, crash-prone storage devices.
Instead, many threads of development, many solutions,
many competitors have addressed many different specific
problems of PC performance--with phenomenal results by
any reasonable measure. Those results haven't always
been easy, and many developers have fallen by the
wayside--but the field as a whole has prospered.
6.0 Edges
Let's talk just a bit about edges: leading edges, bleeding edges,
and trailing edges.
6.1 Everyone Can Be at Some Leading Edge
Everyone can be at some leading edge, at least in understanding a
niche. The key is to define your niche appropriately, and to
determine how important that leading edge is to you. You also
need to understand that really staying on the leading edge in one
field may hurt you in other areas, at least slightly, unless you
can rely on others to stay well-informed in those areas on your
behalf.
+ Page 16 +
Can one person or institution really be at the leading edge
of all information technology? Possibly, but I don't really see
how; it's just too broad a field with too many distinct niches.
Typically, institutions that assert themselves as leading-edge do
so by careful definition: if they're not involved in it, it isn't
leading edge.
I'm probably not the right person to talk about the leading
edge; it's never much occurred to me to worry about whether I'm
there. Besides, the leading edge can get very confusing. If
you're designing an information retrieval system to be used on
campus-wide and library-wide information systems, using the
Internet as a delivery mechanism, you need to understand the
leading edge of character-based, non-graphic, command-oriented
user interface design--which the hot new designers would tell you
was obsolete a decade ago. It all depends.
They call it the bleeding edge, and that's not just a joke.
As they say, you can always tell the pioneers by the arrows in
their backs--that is, the ones that didn't get eaten by other
pioneers. To really get out there on the leading edge, you
probably need to commit to one particular technology in a big
way. God help you if you make the wrong choice.
But, of course, if there are no pioneers, then the frontier
will never be settled. If we never buy version one of anything,
there won't ever be a version two. We need to take some risks--
and we need to expect some failures as a result. That's part of
progress, too.
6.2 The Worth of the Trailing Edge
Anyone here remember the last "Common Sense Personal Computing"
article I wrote for Library Hi Tech? I concluded, correctly I
believe, that it was no longer possible for me to claim that I
could apply common sense to the personal computing field.
Clearly, most of the full-time PC commentators had taken leave of
their common sense in various ways; I couldn't even keep up with
the field in its entirety, and had given up trying.
Well, yes, that was partly an attempt to shut down the
series of articles. It didn't work; I was convinced to come back
in a new guise, that of a trailing-edge commentator. That freed
me from having to keep up with all the newest developments.
+ Page 17 +
My choice of the term trailing edge was a deliberate poke at
those who believe the leading edge is the only game in town. By
the time I started the new series, I had already moved to an AT-
class computer; in 1988, that wasn't quite trailing edge,
although it certainly wasn't leading edge either. Ditto the
386/20 I purchased in 1990: not the lowest of the low, but really
in the fat middle.
That said--and confessing that my current system is
dangerously close to the leading edge, at least for Intel-based
systems--I would also note that there's much to be said for the
true trailing edge. When I travel, that's where I am. No
notebook computer came on this trip; I don't own one.
Fortunately, I don't travel every month, and I'm not such a
hotshot that RLG can't do without my services for a few days.
What do I take on trips? Well, that's when I catch up on science
fiction magazines and, in heavy travel periods, paperback books
as well. That's right; instead of a six-pound notebook computer,
I carry a pound or two of magazines and books. Now that's the
trailing edge. I love it.
To say nothing of this speech, of course. It's not as pure
as the one I did at the University of Southern California in
February; there, I didn't even have a microphone! But here we
are: electric lights undimmed, no video projection system, no
computer-driven overhead, no slides. Just you and me, in the
non-virtual flesh. How retro can you get?
And if that bugs you, well, you shouldn't be at a
conference. You should be on the Net, where the action is.
Meanwhile, I'll stick with the trailing edge--when it works for
me, and when it's all I need. I suggest you do the same; it
frees your time, money and energy for the things that count.
Sometimes, that means seizing the leading edge for a niche.
Sometimes, it means taking a few days to watch the river run.
7.0 Dangers & Hopes
But enough of that. I'd like to offer a few hopes and note a
danger. First, the danger.
+ Page 18 +
7.1 Destroying the Library to Save It
Until recently, I regarded predictions of the death of print and
"electronic everything" as being amusing and annoying. They
seemed harmful only to the extent that people were wasting energy
discussing and analyzing the projections rather than focusing on
finding real (albeit less grandiose) solutions to real problems.
Then an incident occurred at a close friend's small liberal
arts college library; a library that needs to increase its core
print collection to serve the needs of the college's growing
student body. My friend, the library director, has added CD-ROM
and subsidized online searching as funds have permitted. She
understands that the library can only serve its students fully
through a combination of locally held material and strong access
methods for everything else. The library was supposed to be on
the campus development list to bring it up to reasonable
standards.
Now the campus development officer comes to her and says,
"Why do you need to expand the library? I read in the Chronicle
of Higher Education that the book is dying and everything will be
electronic. Why should we waste our money on facilities you
won't need in another five or ten years?"
I'm sure this isn't an isolated incident. And, while I
suspect that my friend can do a good job of explaining the
realities, some librarians may not be able to do so. It isn't
just small academic libraries; public libraries can also run into
this problem when trying for bond issues, for example. How do
you make the case for better funding, part of it to be used to
build or expand a building, when supposed authorities seem to
think that books will go away in a few years?
Oversimplified projections of complete electronic access and
the death of print pose clear and present dangers to our
libraries. Projections of complete electronic access in the near
term, disregarding or denigrating the long-term importance of
print materials, also pose clear and present dangers to our
libraries.
+ Page 19 +
7.2 Librarians: Think Before You Write
Among knowledgeable library people who write or speak as though
print is on its way out, the problem is frequently one of
oversimplification and concentrating on one particular problem to
the exclusion of everything else. The severe problem of
scientific, technical, and medical journals (and the admitted
reliance of top scientific scholars on electronic means for much
of their information) tends to be generalized to the whole of
large research libraries and to all library users, scientists,
humanists, and students alike. As a whole, books in the
humanities haven't increased in price at anything like the
ruinous pace of STM journals--in a very real sense, they aren't
the problem.
Perhaps more to the point, large research libraries and
smaller academic libraries (particularly those at liberal arts
colleges or community colleges) have very different priorities
and problems--and public libraries have yet another set of
priorities and problems. But the people who publish come
primarily from large research libraries, and tend to speak of
"the library" as though all libraries are the same.
When any smaller library, struggling to meet its users'
basic needs, fails to gain adequate funding because of arguments
coming from large research libraries, we all suffer. To those
who publish and speak in the field, I would just say: think about
what you're saying and its impact on all libraries, not merely
your own.
7.3 Enemies of Print: No Friends of Libraries
For the most fervid advocates of the death of print, this
discussion will be meaningless--because to them, libraries are
obsolete in any case. (So, from their perspective, are
librarians.) Most such advocates really don't like books (or
reading), and many really do seem to believe that the only thing
that matters in any book is the independent paragraphs of
information.
Fiction? Why would you go to all the mental strain of
reading (and creating your own images) when you can play a
graphic computer game or watch television? These neo-barbarians
will tell you that nobody reads anymore, anyway--and they're not
really sad about that "fact." (Book sales continue to rise,
albeit slowly.) I have nothing but contempt for this group--and
sadness, as well.
+ Page 20 +
And just a little fear, the fear that even one library could
be damaged or destroyed because of such people. Not that they
would care: more's the pity.
7.4 Hopes
By now you know my hopes for the future of print and of
libraries. I believe that print--books, magazines, newspapers--
will survive as important media for the indefinite future. I
also believe that electronic publishing and dissemination will
grow enormously, displacing print where electronic does it
better, but by no means sounding the death knell for the book. A
future with both print and electronic resources.
I believe that people will continue to write linear prose
and treasure its qualities, particularly for conveying knowledge,
wisdom, and enlightenment and for entertaining. I also believe
that hypertext will find more use where it serves best, not only
in help systems but also to convey independent pieces of data and
information and follow links among such pieces. A future with
both prose and hypertext.
I hope that funding will improve for libraries, and
particularly for strong support of the true expert systems in
libraries: the wetware, the stuff between the ears of good
librarians. I believe librarians will continue to serve their
two key missions, to serve their users and preserve the culture.
I also believe many users will get much of their information
without the mediation of librarians--and there's really nothing
new about that. A future with both librarians as intermediaries
and direct access.
I believe that most libraries, except for some in
specialized areas, will and must continue to maintain and build
strong collections of print and other media, to serve the
essential needs of their users. I also believe that libraries
will and must rely more heavily on access to materials (and non-
material information) that they don't own, and that they must
find ways to share the risks, costs, and benefits of such access.
I hope that librarians won't accept monolithic solutions to
access problems; therein lies disaster. A future with both
collections and access.
I believe librarians will reach beyond the walls of the
library, providing some services electronically and gaining much
information in that manner. I also believe that the library will
stand, in the future as in the past, as the heart of every good
academic institution and the soul of every city. I believe in
the library beyond walls, but not the library without walls. A
future with both edifice and interface.
That's what I believe, and what I hope for.
+ Page 21 +
Notes
1. This paper was presented at the Ninth Texas Conference on
Library Automation, Houston, Texas, 3 April 1993.
About the Author
Walt Crawford, The Research Libraries Group, Inc., 1200 Villa
Street, Mountain View, CA 94041-1100. Internet:
BR.WCC@RLG.STANFORD.EDU.
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+ Page 22 +
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Rooks, Dana. "The Virtual Library: Pitfalls, Promises, and
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1.0 Introduction
The virtual library, this vision of the library of the future,
conjures up a variety of images to each of us. [1] To some, the
virtual library connotes the ultimate fear: obsolescence of the
librarian. To others, the virtual library offers the promised
land: the utopia of information access to all. We have all heard
the term virtual library used in a widely varying set of
scenarios, with equally diverse concepts of what it is, how it
will come into being, what it will mean for each of us as
librarians, and what it will mean for our patrons. But what
exactly does the virtual library encompass?
For the purposes of this paper, I'm going to confine my
definition to the more generally accepted components of the
emerging virtual library. The most fundamental precept of the
virtual library is the universal application of advanced high-
speed computing and telecommunication capabilities to the access
and delivery of information resources. Carried to its ultimate
end, the virtual library offers a universe of information to any
user, anywhere in the world, at any time of the day or night
through the power of a personal computer with telecommunication
capabilities.
While none of us would suggest that the virtual library is a
fully realized concept today, I would argue that it is more fully
developed than many of us realize and that many of you are
contributing to the advancement and acceptance of the virtual
library.
2.0 Evolution Not Revolution
The virtual library is not something to be feared, nor is it the
ultimate answer. It is another step in a long evolutionary
process in which librarians, publishers, the scholarly community,
and others have made information available for the advancement of
knowledge, the joy of learning, and the mere satisfaction of
human curiosity. After all, this is why we all became
librarians, this is what librarians do, and this is what we will
continue to do in the future. The virtual library is merely
another tool to assist us in our goal of serving our patrons.
+ Page 23 +
Librarians have a long history of adopting technology to
enhance services. They were early users of typewriters to
produce catalog cards, then they photoduplicated card sets to
replace individually typed cards. OCLC introduced the exchange
of cataloging data and computer-printed catalog cards, then OPACs
eliminated the production of catalog cards altogether. Today,
LANs, cooperative networks, and Internet access to OPACs, around
the nation and the world, have provided instant access for users,
whether they are in the library or in a living room half way
around the world.
Electronic information systems followed a similar
evolutionary path. Mediated online searching of SDC, Dialog, and
BRS complemented the long standing use of print indexes and
abstracts. Direct end-user searching in libraries started with
vendor systems such as BRS After Dark and stand-alone CD-ROMs,
then added tape-loaded citation databases and networked CD-ROM
databases.
Computerized access to bibliographic information led to the
next logical step of evolution--electronic document delivery.
Full-text products on CD-ROM, such as UMI Periodicals OnDisc, and
rapid delivery through telefacsimile technology and, in limited
cases, electronic file transfer, utilized by such services as
CARL UnCover2 and Faxon Xpress, have brought us one step closer
to the virtual library.
Today, a growing body of citation, full-text, numeric, and
statistical databases are available to the user without ever
entering the hallowed confines of a library building. Just think
about it: no freeway gridlock; no parking hassles; no opening or
closing hours; no missing, lost, or misshelved information; and
no due date. What a world!
3.0 Weaknesses of the Virtual Library Concept
So where's the flaw in the system?
The first weakness of the virtual library is the lack of
information on how to access or find the specific information
needed by the user. This is often referred to as "navigating" in
the electronic world. The problem is that most of the time we're
left without a compass or a map, and often we're navigating under
a dark overcast sky with no stars. In the traditional library,
patrons can avail themselves of printed guides, library
instruction opportunities, and the old standby, the reference
desk, to help them navigate the admittedly complex world of
library tools and services. Skill levels of library patrons vary
from novice to self-proclaimed expert, and librarians adjust to
each along an unending continuum.
+ Page 24 +
So how well do current library service patterns and
behaviors translate in the world of virtual libraries? The
skills of information seekers will be equally disparate in the
electronic environment as they are in the traditional library.
The complexity of access mechanisms and protocols will not
necessarily diminish. Help screens may substitute for print
pathfinders and guides. Books and workshops offered commercially
by the private sector may be a partial replacement for library
instruction classes. But what mechanism will supplant the
reference librarian at the desk? Will libraries establish help
lines or user-support 1-800 numbers? Will we staff terminals for
e-mail questions? I say why not? We are librarians! We help
our patrons search for, locate, and obtain documents and
information. We've adapted our skills and our services to
microforms, online information, and CD-ROMs--now we will adapt to
the Internet, the NREN, and whatever other form information
takes. This is nothing new, it's not terrifying, it's what
libraries and librarians have done for centuries. We adopt, we
adapt, and we continue to serve our clientele.
The second critical element to the success of the virtual
library is the willingness, and probably more importantly, the
ability of libraries to contribute to the shared resources and
services of the virtual library. The concept of the virtual
library is just that--a concept. It's lifeblood is the network
of libraries and information providers that agree to provide
access to the information resources within their control. This
allegiance, partnership, or cooperative constitutes the "virtual
collection," which is the composite of all the information
available in all of the libraries on the network.
Again this is not an alien concept to librarians.
Cooperation and resource sharing are long-standing traditions
among libraries. The concept of interlibrary loan has progressed
from an informal process between librarians, to ILL standards and
request forms, to the OCLC ILL subsystem, with over six million
transactions per year. Library resource sharing has incorporated
such concepts as cooperative collection development, reciprocal
borrowing, and document delivery systems within local, state, and
regional networks of member libraries. The local library has
long established mechanisms to provide its patrons with access to
resources outside its own walls. The mechanisms have changed in
some cases from mail to UPS to fax, but the principle remains the
same: to meet the information needs of our clientele as
efficiently and as thoroughly as we can. The emerging virtual
library is merely another step in the same direction.
+ Page 25 +
Not surprisingly, the third major pitfall of the virtual
library is cost. Establishing and maintaining network services
involve major commitments of resources, both financial and human.
Internetworking incorporates a plethora of highly complex
technical issues that must be resolved through standardization,
compromise, and cooperative development.
As the network is expanded from a LAN to a WAN and
eventually to an NREN, its cost grows exponentially and in
parallel to its benefits, as a growing circle of users are
provided access to this virtual collection of resources. Funding
the hardware, software, maintenance, and staffing needs of the
network is a major issue, but it is no different from funding the
cataloging, shelving, and preservation of paper resources.
4.0 Implementation Challenges
So what are some of the issues we, as librarians, need to
address? First of all, we need to effect a transition or a
transformation of how we think about what it is we do. How do we
serve our users now and how will we serve users of the virtual
library? Most of the early computer systems in libraries were
developed for librarians' use. From bibliographic utilities to
computerized online searching to automated ILL systems to online
acquisitions systems, the end-user was primarily librarians and
library support staff. With the advent of OPACs, CD-ROMs, and
campus LANs, the focus of use shifted to the patron. However,
with few exceptions, the user of these systems was expected to be
in the library, using library hardware and software with
assistance from library personnel.
The advent of the virtual library will effect a major
transition in how we deliver library services. We can no longer
expect users to be present in the library to ask for assistance
or to be available for traditional library instruction. The
delivery of services to a primarily remote group of users through
a networked system will mandate a fresh look at how libraries are
organized, staffed, and funded to deliver services and
information.
+ Page 26 +
The concept of the NREN as an "electronic superhighway" that
will instantly connect users to the information they seek,
regardless of its location, is a popular concept. However it
overlooks a major barrier to widespread use--the user's ability
to identify the appropriate electronic resource in this vast sea
of information and then retrieve needed information from it. How
will we train service staff who interpret the system for the
public? What format will library instruction programs and
educational materials take and how will they be delivered to our
users? The role of the librarian in this process will only
increase in importance. What we must resolve is how that role
will be implemented in the virtual library.
The final two areas that mandate our involvement in the
emerging virtual library are the intellectual content and the
technical design of this electronic library. Who is going to
decide what resources will be included in the virtual collection?
How will these resources be organized? How will they fit into an
overall collection development plan within a library, a
consortium, or a larger user community? Will profit rule the
decisions, or will librarians influence the balance in electronic
information sources as they have always done in developing
balanced print collections, reflecting all interests of their
user population?
What about technical issues? How will the network be
configured? Who will decide on the appropriate system
architecture? As librarians do we shy away from highly technical
considerations, or do we utilize our extensive knowledge of how
information is best organized and accessed? How many of us have
tried to use CD-ROM searching software that seemed to follow no
logical searching pattern? It is imperative that librarians
become involved in the technical design issues of the virtual
library, or we and, most importantly, our users will pay the
price of our failure.
The problems confronting the continued development of the
virtual library are not insignificant, but they are also not
insurmountable. The key is that librarians must assume a
leadership role in this development. We cannot totally abandon
the shaping of the future of information access, retrieval, and
delivery to the commercial sector.
Great progress is being made in libraries around the country
through innovative and groundbreaking projects that are
attempting to define the future of the virtual library--how it
will operate, what it will include, who will have access, and of
critical importance, who will have control.
+ Page 27 +
5.0 Virtual Library Projects
A brief overview of a small selection of virtual library projects
will convey not only the importance of these projects and what
they are achieving, but also convince you that we all can and
must become involved in this vital process.
One of the best known of these projects is a joint effort of
Carnegie Mellon University and OCLC, called the Mercury
Electronic Library. [2] Begun in 1987-88, Project Mercury is
using modern distributed computing to provide users with access
to a wide variety of textual databases, including citation and
abstract databases, as well as basic full-text reference sources.
Project Mercury is exploring the technical design issues and
working to expand available content through partnerships with
journal publishers such as Elsevier and IEEE.
The University of Iowa Libraries Information Arcade is
focusing on how best to support the "use of information
technologies for research, teaching, and scholarly
communication." [3] The system incorporates text, data, software
programs, graphics, music, and digital video files, as well as
capabilities for electronic mail and access to other library
catalogs, electronic journals, newsletters, and academic
discussion lists. [4]
Cornell University and Xerox Corporation have formed a
partnership with support from the Commission on Preservation and
Access. The goal of the CLASS project is to test a prototype
system for recording brittle books as digital images and
producing, on demand, high-quality and archivally sound paper
replacements. [5] In addition to the obvious preservation
issues, the project also seeks to "investigate some of the issues
surrounding scanning, storing, retrieving and providing access to
digital images in a network environment." [6]
In a final project, North Carolina State University, the
National Agricultural Library, and eleven land grant university
libraries are collaborating in the NCSU Digitized Document
Transmission Project. [7] The aim of this project is to explore
"techniques for electronic receipt, display, distribution and
output of digitized library research materials." [8]
These four projects represent only a small sampling of the
efforts of libraries around the world to explore, enhance, and
shape the future of the virtual library. They are doing what
librarians do: seeking new ways of providing information to their
users.
+ Page 28 +
6.0 Conclusion
The virtual library is not the ultimate answer to everyone's
information needs. It is merely another step in a dynamic and
evolutionary process. The traditional print library and
traditional library services will not disappear. But, as
librarians, we must accept and adapt to the introduction of new
techniques and systems. We must recognize the enormous potential
of the virtual library, address the issues involved in its
creation, and take a leadership role in integrating these new
systems and services into our libraries, for our own good and for
the good of our users.
Notes
1. This paper was presented at the Ninth Texas Conference on
Library Automation, Houston, Texas, 2 April 1993.
2. William Y. Arms et al., "The Design of the Mercury Electronic
Library," EDUCOM Review 27 (November/December 1992): 38-41.
3. "Arcade Provides Internet Access," University of Iowa
Libraries Information Arcade Bulletin (February 1993): 4.
4. Ibid., 3.
5. "Cornell/Xerox/CPA Joint Study in Digital Preservation--
Progress Report November 2," The Electronic Library 10 (June
1992): 155-163.
6. Ibid., 155.
7. Tracy M. Casorso, "NCSU Digitized Document Transmission
Project: Improving Access to Agricultural Libraries," The
Electronic Library 10 (October 1992): 271-273.
8. Ibid., 271.
About the Author
Dana Rooks, Assistant Director for Administration, University
Libraries, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-2091.
Internet: LIBL@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU.
+ Page 29 +
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is an electronic
journal that is distributed on BITNET, Internet, and other
computer networks. There is no subscription fee.
To subscribe, send an e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1
(BITNET) or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (Internet) that says:
SUBSCRIBE PACS-P First Name Last Name. PACS-P subscribers also
receive three electronic newsletters: Current Cites, LITA
Newsletter, and Public-Access Computer Systems News.
This article is Copyright (C) 1993 by Dana Rooks. All
Rights Reserved.
The Public-Access Computer Systems Review is Copyright (C)
1993 by the University Libraries, University of Houston. All
Rights Reserved.
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by academic
computer centers, computer conferences, individual scholars, and
libraries. Libraries are authorized to add the journal to their
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