Library Services in Theory and Context

Chapter 17: Technology

The Role of Technology

Libraries are concerned with knowledge, culture, information, facts, and beliefs. ¹ The purpose of a library in the words of Frederick Kilgour, "is to actively participate in the evolution of those profoundly human creations: beauty, faith, justice, and knowledge." ² However, as a practical matter, libraries and librarians deal with physical objects, with representations of knowledge, culture, information, facts, and beliefs. Libraries deal with texts and images—or, more strictly, with text-bearing objects and image-bearing objects, with millions of these objects on miles of shelving. It is reasonable to expect, therefore, that any significant change in the nature or characteristics of these physical objects could have profound effects for library services. ³

Technology has to do with the handling of physical objects and, for that reason, should be of extraordinary interest to librarians for good practical reasons. (We use "technique" to denote a way of doing something and "technology" to denote a useful physical resource that can serve as a tool or a means to accomplish something. Any given technique will make more or less use of different technologies.)

Each tool, each technology, has its capabilities and its limitations. Improvements in technology bring changes (usually increases) in capabilities and changes (usually, but not necessarily, reductions) in limitations. In other words, the general effect of improvements in technology will be to reduce practical constraints. This is not to imply that the adoption of new technology may not involve practical difficulties and false starts when attempts are made to implement it,⁴ but, in general terms, improved technology has the effect of diminishing constraints and, in this sense, has a liberating effect. In this chapter we address possible liberating effects consequent on the use of new technology for library service.

Our concepts and understanding are based upon what we know and are familiar with. Library technology was very stable for a century, until recently. Library technology has been firmly based on the technology of paper and of cardboard. Our views of library services derive from and are deeply rooted in those technologies. Small improvements are relatively easy to grasp: large changes are not. The implications of any radical change in technology is unlikely to be understood or appreciated for a long time, except, perhaps, by a few visionaries who are able to concentrate on key underlying principles, but whose visions could prove to be seriously erroneous. As a general rule, the more radical the change, the greater the need to go back to first principles. As noted in our discussion of collections in chapter 7, the development of electronic digital computers and associated technology has constraints quite different from those of the technology of paper and of cardboard. There is a massive literature on how computer technology could, should, or might be used in library services and elsewhere. Much of it is heavily technical and practical; some of it attempts to predict changes and to forecast the future,⁵ a topic that we shall consider in the next chapter.

Considering a new technology, and thinking about its possible applications, are not easy. One understandable tendency is to think of the new technology in relation to uses of the current technology. Such uses are, however, necessarily based on the capabilities and limitations of the current technology and this, in turn, is a constrained and distorted interpretation of what ideally needs to be done. Ideally one would like to be able to consider new technology in relation to first principles, to a theoretical definition of what would constitute ideal library service. (It may very well be prudent to implement technological changes in a gradual manner but that is a matter of tactics rather than of principle or strategy.)⁶

Unfortunately, thinking in abstract terms about practical matters is not only difficult but also remote from our experience with library provision and use, especially where library technology is concerned. However, it can often be helpful to examine problems backwards or upside-down. In addition to studying the potential of new technology, it can be useful to examine the capabilities and limitations of past library technology. (In this we summarize and continue our discussion in chapter 7.)

The Technology of Paper and Cardboard

It is difficult, in practice, to analyze objectively that which is familiar. What one needs is the proverbial "Man from Mars". What would an extraterrestrial find interesting about traditional library technology? We shall assume that an extraterrestrial with sufficient technology to visit earth would take for granted the technology of computers, especially mass storage, online retrieval, and telecommunications. The extraterrestrial might be more intrigued by the properties of an information technology that would not exist on a planet without vegetation and is certainly different from computers: that is paper. The extraterrestrial might observe that paper has two properties that differentiate it markedly from computer technology:

1. Paper is a strictly localized information technology. Unlike computer technology the paper and the would-be reader have to be in the same place at the same time. If they are not, the one or the other has to move. This may sound trivial, but the consequences are not. Some years ago in a large and decentralized university library system there were twelve subscriptions to Chemical Abstracts. It was felt by some to be rather extravagant to have so many subscriptions, but no group of users was willing to give up their own and have to walk across the campus to use some other copy. In the event it required the personal attention of the university president to achieve a reduction in subscriptions. The moral is that the localized nature of paper (and, it would seem, of library users) is a powerful factor. In this, paper as an information technology differs from computers. How many of the worldwide users of the Lockheed DIALOG information retrieval service know where the information is stored? Or even where their local telephone exchange is located? Does it matter whether they know or not?
2. Paper is also an isolated technology. Books lend themselves to being used by only person at a time. Again, this differs radically from computer technology. When using an online catalog one does even know how many other people, if any, are using the catalog at the same time.

Microform would presumably be viewed by the extra-terrestrial as paper with bad habits: it is even more local in that a reading machine must also be in the same place; again it is suited for use by only one person at a time; and one cannot even scribble on it.

Some implications of technological change

Both the nature of the limitations of traditional library technology and some consequences of the introduction of new technology can be briefly illustrated by reviewing some aspects of current library service.

Collections: access and local holdings

In chapter 7, in discussing library collections, the "localized" property of library collections in traditional media, such as paper and microform, was identified. It leads naturally and reasonably to an enormous emphasis on assembling collections of copies of materials locally, since holding material locally is, in effect, a necessary (though not a sufficient) condition for prompt and convenient access to it.

With machine-readable texts and images, prompt and convenient access no longer depends on the materials being stored locally, though it may well be sensible to store a copy locally depending on size, cost, usage, telecommunications, and other technical considerations.

In brief, the new technology removes the constraint of localness that dominates with the technology of paper. In this alone, the whole function and mystique of local collections begins to evaporate to the extent to which paper is supplemented by the less-localized media of databases.

Catalogs: back to bibliography⁷

Chapter 8, which examined retrieval, did so in general terms. We now consider library catalogs in relation to changing technology. Library catalogs are defined in the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules as a "list of library materials contained in a collection, a library, or a group of libraries, arranged according to some definite plan."⁸ As a listing of material, a library catalog is a special form of bibliography defined by the intersection of two subsets:

1. Library catalogs use one particular level of description: the edition of the monograph and the title of the periodical. More detailed ("analytical") cataloging is possible and can be found, especially in small, specialized libraries, but is not customary.⁹
2. The set of records in a library catalog is further defined geographically: the records that pertain to the particular collection, library, or, in the case of a union catalog, two or more libraries.

Catalog records are composed of two elements: (i) a bibliographical element describing a title or an edition, a description that is common to all copies of that title or edition; and (ii) local holding information, such as the call number, specific to the individual copy or copies.¹⁰

Both are needed. However, the bibliographic access provided by library catalogs (i) is substantially inferior in detail, extent, and quantity to that available through bibliographies—as was pointed out when modern library catalogs were developed in the late nineteenth century.¹¹ The technology of paper and of cardboard does not, however, lend itself to the combining of entries from bibliographies with individual library holdings statements (ii above). The solution adopted when modern librarianship was defined in the late nineteenth century was, in effect, the creation of a new, third file, the catalog, containing elements from each. However, computers have now replaced the paper and cardboard as the technology of choice. Computer technology, in contrast to that of paper and cardboard, lends itself well to the linking, merging, and rearrangement of files. As widespread, convenient access comes to be provided to bibliographies and as libraries' internal operations are computerized, it is to be expected that a more direct, online, linking will be provided, enabling the user to start with the power of published bibliographies and then refer directly to local library holdings information, in effect augmenting or by-passing the catalog.

As noted above in our discussion of collections, the long-established relationship between "locally-held" and "conveniently available" can be expected to weaken. Much that is conveniently available will not be held locally, but can be conjured up in a virtual copy on the glowing screen. What then of the role of a library catalog that is, by definition, limited to locally-held material? To emphasize what is locally stored as opposed to locally accessible would be an irrelevant and unhelpful approach to providing library service. Some redefinition of the nature and role of the library catalog is indicated.

Information technology and library use

Chapters 7 and 9 above explored the nature of collections and the purpose and manner of their use. The process of becoming informed involves a combination of mental effort and mechanical process. Circumstances vary greatly, but, as one example, we can envisage a scholar who might read a text and then produce a summary, rebuttal, or commentary, perhaps in a different language. As another example, numbers might be copied into a calculator and statistical summaries generated automatically. The former case is largely cerebration, yet a variety of mechanical aids might prove useful: paper, pencil, and cards are traditional aids; a dictionary, perhaps, or photocopies of the originals; a word processor might be helpful in the preparation of the summary or in preparing a concordance or other mechanical analysis of the text.

The technology used to assist in these processes is, by and large, that referred to as "information technology". It seems reasonable to expect that information technology will continue to make progress in supplying more powerful and cheaper tools. For this reason alone, one should expect that there will be more options available. In the meanwhile texts, images, and sounds are increasingly available in digitized form. The more these materials are available in machine-readable form, the more scope there is to use information technology to aid in the reading, copying, excerpting, analyzing, inferring, and adding to the resources—to the processes of learning and of scholarship. Examples of studies that have been transformed, such as mathematical linguistics, are not hard to find and, at least among the users of academic libraries, personal computers are already common.¹²

The amount and range of resources that are in machine-readable form is increasing and requires or, at least, lends itself to machine-assisted use. The number and power of technological aids to handling texts, images, and sounds continue to increase. The consequence appears to be a significant change in library use in the form of a significant increase in machine-assisted use of library materials. What help will library users receive in the future with the interaction between library resources and the user's personal computing environment? And from whom? Such help would appear to be a logical development of the role of reference librarians, but has hardly been addressed yet in the literature on information technology in libraries.

Conclusion

Librarians and library users are concerned with the search for intangibles: knowledge, information, entertainment. Nevertheless the situation is dominated in practice by the sheer mass and complexity of physical objects needed to support these concerns. Different technologies have different capabilities and limitations and, therefore, technological change alters the constraints upon effective library service. Specifically, new technology improves the physical storage and handling of records. However, the fact that a record has been stored in some place does not mean that you know that it exists, that you could find it if you wanted it, that you could understand what it signified, that you should believe it, that it is not contradicted by some other record, or that just those who should have access to it do have access to it. Therefore, paradoxically, we may expect that the liberating power of the new technology will (and should) induce renewed attention to these traditional nontechnological concerns of librarianship—so long as librarianship is a service profession, concerned with ideas as well as with records.¹³

Planning for libraries and statements mission and objectives that are understandably influenced by what is known to be feasible. Improvements in technology change some of the constraints on what is feasible. A natural consequence is that ideas, plans, and policies tend to reflect obsolescent understanding of the possibilities. In the next chapter we shall explore the nature of change in library service.

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¹For a discussion of facts, knowledge, and beliefs as the scope of library service see D. Bergen, Issues of Access in the New Information Age (Kingston, RI: University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, 1984) (ERIC Report ED 271 119).

² F. G. Kilgour, "The Impact of Technology on Libraries," in The Information Society: Issues and Answers, edited by E. J. Josey. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1978, 12-19. Reprinted in F. G. Kilgour, Collected Papers of Frederick G. Kilgour: OCLC Years (Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, 1984, 393-7).

³ This duality of culture on the one hand and physical objects on the other as the realm of libraries may explain some ambiguity in the status of librarians. An individual who fosters knowledge and culture can reasonably be viewed differently from someone who (merely) stores physical objects.

⁴ For a good review of what can go wrong when using computers in libraries see S. R. Salmon, Library Automation Systems (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1975). Chap 9: "The Problems of Library Automation Systems."

⁵ E.g., "Fifteen years from now there will be a microchip in your telephone receiver with more computer power than all the technology the Department of Defense can buy today. All the written knowledge of the world will be one of the items found in every schoolchild's pocket." H. Reingold, Tools for Thought: The People and Ideas behind the Next Computer Revolution (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), p. 16.

⁶ For librarians' responses to technological change see S. F. Fine, "Technological Innovation, Diffusion and Resistance: An Historical Perspective," Journal of Library Administration 7, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 83-108.

⁷ For a fuller discussion see M. K. Buckland, "Bibliography, Library Records, and the Redefinition of the Library Catalog," Library Resources and Technical Services 33, no. 4 (October 1988): 299-311.

⁸ American Library Association, Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. 2nd ed. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978). p. 564.

⁹ The limitation by level of description is a matter of standard practice, not of principle. Indeed there is explicit provision in the rules for more detailed description. American Library Association, Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. 2nd ed. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978). Rule 13.5A and examples, p.271-72. Two good examples of published library catalogs containing entries for articles in periodicals and individual contributions within books are: Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, United States Army, 1880, and Catalogue of the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore, 1883-92. However, the high cost of analyticals has led to its general abandonment and recourse to published bibliographies.

¹⁰ In terms of the MARC format for the communication of bibliographic records, the fixed fields and those with tags numbered through 899 describe an edition of a work or the record describing that edition. Fields 900 and above refer only to individual copies or to individual's records associated with those copies.

¹¹ For an excellent review see R. C. Swank, "Subject Catalogs, Classifications, or Bibliographies? A Review of Critical Discussions, 1876-1942," Library Quarterly 14 (1944): 316-32. Reprinted in R. C. Swank, A Unifying Influence: Essays (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981). p. 1-27.

¹² By 1986 45 percent of U.S. faculty in the humanities and social sciences reportedly already had personal computers. H. C. Morton & A. J. Price, "The ACLS Survey of Scholars: Views, Publications, Computers, Libraries," Scholarly Communication 5 (Summer 1986): 1-16.

¹³ J. H. Shera, "Librarianship and Information Science," in The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages, edited by F. Machlup & U. Mansfield. (New York: Wiley, 1983), pp. 379-88.

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