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Book museums or virtual libraries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Clive Phillpot
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Abstract

Although its replacement has not yet been fully developed, the traditional book is likely to be largely superseded in the foreseeable future by electronic publishing. Libraries will become book museums; with librarians as curators; many other librarians will find themselves dealing with unlimited and unpackaged information rather than with pre-packaged artefacts, in a role which will include facilitating and championing public access to information. The electronic ‘virtual library’ will encompass visual as well as verbal information; it will subsume art libraries except insofar as art libraries will become museums, but both the ‘virtual library’ and art libraries will continue to require the skills and vision of art librarians. Finally, in the short term, and perhaps indefinitely, the ‘virtual library’ and the ‘book library’ may not diverge to the extent of parting company altogether: the latter may continue to function as one gateway providing access to the latter.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , 1994 , pp. 4 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1994

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References

Notes

1 Raymond Kurzweil has been contributing a regular colum, ‘The Futurecast’ to Library Journal. Five of these are particularly relevant to this discussion: January 1992, p.80, 82, ‘The future of libraries, part 1: the technology of the book’; 15th February, 1992, p. 140-141, ‘The future of libraries, part 2: thé end of books’; 15th March, 1992, p.63-64, ‘The future of libraries, part 3: the virtual library’; 15th February, 1993, p.145-146, ‘The virtual book revisited’; 15th March, 1993, p.54-55, ‘The virtual library’. The life cycle of a technology is described in Kurzweil, Library Journal January 1992, p.80-81.

2 Kurzweil, . Library Journal, 15th February, 1992, p.141 Google Scholar.

3 Ibid, p. 141

4 Kurzweil, . Library Journal, 15th March, 1993, p.54 Google Scholar.

5 Nunberg, Geoffrey. ‘The places of books in the age of electronic reproduction’, Representations no. 42, Spring 1993, p.13–37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This quotation p. 14.

6 Ibid, p. 14.

7 Ibid, p.16.

8 Ibid, p.19.

9 Ibid, p.33.

10 For useful short descriptions of the history and use of the Internet, see Swain, Leigh and Cleveland, Gary, ‘Overview of the Internet: origins, future, and issues’, IFLA Journal 20 (1), 1994, p.16–21 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Valauskas, Edward J.. ‘Using the Internet in libraries’. IFLA Journal 20 (1), 1994, p.22–28 Google Scholar.

11 Kurzweil, . Library Journal, 15th March, 1993, p.54 Google Scholar.

12 Ibid, p.54.

13 Ibid, p.54.

14 Ibid, p.54.

15 Kurzweil, . Library Journal, 15th March, 1992, p.63 Google Scholar.

16 Ibid, p.63.

17 Nunberg, . Op cit. p.31 Google Scholar.

18 Penniman, W. David. Visions of the Future: Libraries and Librarianship for the Next Century. Brooklyn (NY): Pratt Graduate School of Information and Library Science, 1993, p.11 Google Scholar.

19 Ibid, p.11.

20 Ibid, p. 12-13.

21 Kurzweil, . Library Journal, 15th March, 1993, p.55 Google Scholar.

22 Penniman, . Op cit., p. 14 Google Scholar.

23 Ibid, p.13.

24 Ibid, p.19.

25 At the Annual Meeting of ARLIS/NA on 14th February, 1994, a resolution was passed unanimously; the last paragraph read: ‘We deplore the actions of the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in permitting the closing of the museum’s library, and the dismissal of the museum’s library staff.’ (It was also rumored that the museum had been considering selling the whole library collection!) When the resolution was commented on by the deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum, his defensive comment was: ‘We see a tremendous growth in research and in the future hope to set up an electronic library’. The New York Times. Friday, 25th February, 1994, p. C26.