The Rationale for Non-Book Materials in Libraries, Part V

In her article, "Step away from the machine: A Look at Our Collective Past," University at Buffalo media librarian Lori Widzinski makes the case that librarians have had to make significant upgrades about media formats in the past and that we need to look to issues of those times to understand the gravity of the decisions that librarians face in their profession today. Then, as now, non-book media were envisioned as necessary tools to shape the educational goals of the future. According to a 2000 academic library survey that Widzinski cites, "63 percent of these collections cited instructional support as being their founding principle" (p.359). Widzinski also makes reference to previous format changes that stirred great controversy among library practitioners in the library field. In the past 100 years, librarians have progressed from lantern slides to 35mm color slides to the digital image in order to visually present information. In quoting one resource, Widzinski relates that "our profession encountered a transition fifty years ago similar to the one we are experiencing today" (2010, p. 360).
But beyond recognizing that history is repeating itself, it is imperative for librarians to acquiesce that to do nothing is to risk obsolescence.

As noted by John Vallier, "many users, students, and faculty alike, have expectations" about the availability of digital media that originated "in the home-use and Internet sectors and don't translate to the educational market" (2010, p. 388). Unless the library community actively counters the cultural assumption that the death of the physical format of digital media is a harbinger of the media center's irrelevance., "we could be eradicated in the early stages if we are not a player" (Vallier, 2010, p. 381). So, the best defense for libraries and librarians as participants and not casualties of the digital revolution is to promote non-book materials, embrace transliteracy, and prepare for the reality that certain kinds of learning formats, such as textbooks, will not survive as the printed books we know them to be today. As Stephen Abram proposed in his recent lecture, "What does a book look like when there is no compromise on two dimensions?" (SLABuffalo, 2010).

SLABuffalo. (2010, Nov. 21). Stephen Abram at UB [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-gSNn17Z64.

Widzinski, L. (2010). "Step away from the machine": A look at our collective past. Library Trends, 58(3), 358-77.

Vallier, J. (2010). Twenty-first century academic media center: Killer app or chindogu? Library Trends, 58(3), 378-90.