Week 6-#15

Let a tear roll slowly down Dewey's cheek. Let the stern faced stereotypical librarian dress in black. Let us bow our heads as the casket passes. Let us mourn the passing of the vacant temple.

Access is liberation is the polar statement of my teaching philosophy, with its counterpoint; denial is oppression. Only free men could seek a 'liberal' education--an education that wasn't directly tied to the service they provided. Knowledge was (and is) a commodity unto itself. Gutenberg (among others) proliferated knowledge, yet it was still in control of those in power. It wasn't until the 19th century that public libraries started to crop up. This is essential to the concept of a literate and informed democracy.

Still, the books cost money, and the source of the money was tied to whichever political faction held the reigns. Digital transfer has liberated the individual in a way that has never been experienced before. They say that at 20 million books in the Library of Congress, and at 1 MB a book, one can now house the books in the library of Congress with under $2000. Woah!

Furthermore, we are not stopping. This is an article from almost three years ago.

"Renugopalakrishnan says the new protein-based DVD will have advantages over current optical storage devices (such as the Blue-ray). It will be able to store at least 20 times more than the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000 gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information, he says. Membrane proteins These membrane proteins are being used to generate the first protein-based information storage system to store terabytes of information The star at the centre of the high-capacity DVD is a light-activated protein found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum. The protein, called bacteriorhodopsin (bR), captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy."

http://www.getusb.info/50-terabyte-flash-drive-made-of-bug-protein/

That's two and a half libraries of congress in a single DVD. If it were more than books, it would be approximately 60 of these discs.

We have the capacity to store more information than we will be able to consume in our lifetimes. I hope print libraries survive, if nothing else, but for the charm. However, much more important, is the necessity of access to information that our democracy demands. How we ensure this in the future is the key to the shape of the libraries of the future. At the same time, it isn't about text 1.0, it's about interacting. So instead of libraries being sources of information, they need to be centers where information can be utilized at an advanced level. There are many people who won't recognize the necessity of ensuring technology for everyone. Everyone needs access to technology to participate in today's democracy. Libraries will have to fill this role.