Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloguing still :-)--was: Cataloguing again--ARSC responsibility?

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Cox" <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> On 31/08/06, Karl Miller wrote:
> > On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, steven c wrote:
> >
> >> It will be interesting to see how Google fares with their idea of
> >> "digitize every book we can get away with and set up a search engine
> >> therefor!" iTunes (and its ilk) create their half-vast music files by
> >> offering compressed versions, as well as (being "pay-to-play"
> >> operations) charging for each one downloaded. This, of course,
> >> defeats the idea of a "public" library/system...but may be forced on
> >> those by authors and other creators, and/or copyright law changes.
> >> Remember. this is the XXI Jahrhundert...and money isn't everything,
> >> it's the ONLY thing!
> >
> > Which of course outlines some very basic challenges to libraries.
> > Assuming they still care about providing free access to the public,
> > how will they do that in the digital information environment,
> > especially as they seem to be trying to become publishers by
> > digitizing holdings. I really don't understand what library
> > administrators see as the future of libraries.
>
> I checked out a couple of Google's PDFs.
>
> One is Jerrold's "Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures". This has been scanned
> from a good copy and is presented as a collection of bitmap images - if
> you wanted a text file, you would have to OCR the images yourself.
>
> The resolution of the bitmaps is enough for reading the text, but
> nowhere near high enough to reproduce the illustrations (wood
> engravings) accurately. As I am interested in the history of
> illustration, this would not be useful for research.
>
> As with master tapes, there is a need to preserve the original objects.
> Lossy copies are not enough.
>
Worse yet, the .pdf format requires a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader
(admittedly
downloadable for free if you go looking) in a version equal to or newer than
the one used to create the file...and you CAN'T use "Edit, Copy" to save
the piece you were looking for, because a .pdf is just a PICTURE of
text...not text! This means you have to save the entire .pdf on your
HD, use Acrobat Reader to access it and manually copy the text you
are interested in! This is something like making sound recordings
available in a proprietary format with limited fidelity...

> And how about those who are researching the history of printing, or of
> book-binding?
>
>
> If the University is purely a teaching institution, with no research,
> then none of this matters - although I don't think such a place can
> really be called a university.
>
Teaching, by definition, implies research! I was told many times, as
I passed though university, "We aren't teaching you facts...we are
teaching you how to ACCESS facts, since that is the skill you will
need in the real world!" When an instructor assigns a 40-page
paper, he isn't trying to teach you the paper's underlying facts...
he/she/it is teaching you the skill of COLLECTING that data (as well
as using it to form/justify your own ideas in coherent form)!

A REAL student (here I disqualify the vast number who attend institutions
of higher learning only to attain "a degree in <X>" so they can obtain
higher-paying employment with a higher social status, and usually manage
to avoid learning anything except where "the party" is at...) is actually
eager to learn both information (the mind can only hold so much of that)
and how one accesses that information when needed!

Too many post-secondary schools today specialize in providing what
most of their clientele THINK they want...a nice, expensive, impressive
document written in Latin which will (in theory) open the door to
an extremely well-paid position where the mere prospect of manual
labour is anathema. In fact, in these institutions, it is possible
to graduate with a "Gentleman's 'C'" without actually having
learned SFA!! However...there exist a sufficiency (or more) of
beer joints close to campus...plenty of fraternities and sororities
which hold regular (and legendary) bachanaals (sp?)...and readily
available student parking!

In fact, I pleasantly surprised a number of my university instructors
by not only asking coherent questions (usually after class)...but also
stating publicly that I was there to learn what the course/instructor
was supposed to teach...

(Side Note: When I returned to Illinois State to resume work on my
teaching degree, the course had been completely "re-jiggered" in a
way that meant it would take me 3-1/2 school years to complete the
course [not "courseS"...that was the gist of the change!] which
left me with 10 to 12 semester-hours per term to take whatever
I dommed well felt like...my attitude was, "Well, I'm paying to
learn stuff...I better learn as much as I possibly can! It won't
cost me any more...!")

Steven C. Barr