BiblioTech : why libraries matter more than ever in the age of Google / John Palfrey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Palfrey, John, 1972- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Libraries and the Internet.

Libraries--Social aspects--United States.

Libraries.

Library information networks.

Libraries and electronic publishing.

Library users--Effect of technological innovations on.

Library users.

Librarians--Effect of technological innovations on.

Librarians.

Digital preservation.

Libraries--Forecasting.

Libraries--Social aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

vii, 280 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, [2015]

Summary:

"Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible-by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal. "-- Provided by publisher.

"We live in a world of complex and seemingly infinite information. The ways in which people of all ages use and obtain that information has changed drastically in recent years: e-book readership has increased, Wikipedia has largely supplanted encyclopedias and reference books, and many people now consume news and media through their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. With digital culture ascendant, it seems counterintuitive to argue that libraries, of all things, are more important than ever. But that is exactly what library expert John Palfrey does in BiblioTech, a stirring call to arms that explains how libraries can become bulwarks against the creeping problems of our times: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. Yet the fate of the local library is by no means secure; these institutions are struggling to adapt to our rapidly modernizing world, and often rely on dwindling funding from state and local governments to do so. In order to survive, libraries will need to dramatically shift their focus from maintaining and building up their collections to serving their communities. Print and analog formats will never disappear, Palfrey assures us, but libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible--by digitizing print material, ensuring that born-digital material (from data sets to blog posts to sound recordings) is accessible to researchers, and making all of this digital information publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement and the process of digitizing collections and training librarians will be complicated and costly. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Crisis : a perfect storm

Customers : how we use libraries

Spaces : the connection between the virtual and the physical

Platforms : what cloud computing means for libraries

Hacking : how to build the future

Networks : the human network of librarians

Preservation : collaboration, not competition, to preserve culture

Education : libraries and connected learners

Law : why copyright and privacy matter so much

Conclusion : what's at stake.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-270) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780465042999

0465042996

OCLC:

891609326