Michael Gorman, I'm ashamed of you.

[bunnyjadwiga]

Ok, as Librarians, we've all had occasions when our deans, directors or what-have-you administrative supervisor says something that makes us want to hide in the basement behind the 020s until everyone forgets.

But Michael Gorman has done it for the whole profession. His "Revenge of the Blog People" editorial in proves that narrowminded, longwinded

Comments

Cultural filters

[bunnyjadwiga]

I'll let another librarian speak for me:
"We are often considered society's gatekeepers, but librarians are actually the gateways. We are the one profession dedicated to ensuring the right to know. We must never lose sight of this mission despite the seductive siren songs of our information age's mythology."
-- Patricia Glass Schuman

Basically, our role as librarians is to help people pick out the information, etc. that they need. That means helping them pick the right filter for the job. Librarians tend to provide/control collections with a certain emphasis: on reliable, objective information whose pedigree is vouched for in one of the ways we are trained to look for it. Peer review is one of those ways; publication by reliable presses is another.

But, like any other filter, using librarians to filter material doesn't stop the rest from being available. Think of librarians as a water gate-- we let through PART of the flood of information in order to make it more manageable. Perhaps we add other filters or metadata to the information to make it easier to use. But if you want the whole, messy river, you can have it-- just go past the gated area.

Re: Cultural filters

[fuzzybutchkins]

that sounds like a very positive spin on the concept. however, the quoted person makes it sound negative. do you know what ze is referring to?