Future Libraries ed. by R. Howard Bloch, Carla Hesse

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 817 mos is continually out ofwhack at whatever level we care to examine it. . . . And perhaps the microworld is continually evolving in re­ sponse to such mismatches” (p. 251). Talk about saving the phe­ nomenon. And we all thought Paul Feyerabend was an anarchist! Ed Constant Dr. Constant teaches the history of technology at Carnegie-Mellon University and has the great good fortune to have been taught by Donald T. Campbell. Future Libraries. Edited by R. Howard Bloch and Carla Hesse. Berke­ ley: University of California Press, 1995. Pp. vi+159; notes. $40.00 (cloth) $16.00 (paper). The essays in this book, except for Robert C. Berring’s “Future Librarians,” were originally published as a special issue ofRepresenta­ tions (spring 1993). That publication, in turn, sprang from a confer­ ence held at the University of California, Berkeley, on the new French national library, “The Très Grande Bibliothèque and the Future of the Library.’ ’ Information technology is bringing sweeping and noisy changes to the once quiet world of books and libraries. To provide a sense of the unfinished character of many of the debates swirling around that world, and of the transforming quality of the digital revolution, the editors ofFuture Libraries sought to include essays “that can be considered documents of our time as well as interpretive essays” (p. 2). The contributors to the volume are a mixture of public officials, librarians, lawyers, computer specialists, and architects, all involved in one way or another with new developments in the world of infor­ mation. The essays are quite varied in both discipline and point of view. Some are straight explications of a new project, such as archi­ tect Cathy Simon’s description of the conceptual plan of the new San Francisco Public Library, or Prosser Gifford, of the Library of Congress, explaining the efforts to apply new technology to improve access to the national libraries of Eastern Europe. Others are more analytical, such as architectural historian Anthony Vidler’s analysis of the selection of Dominque Perrault’s plant for the Bibliothèque de France viewed within the context of French national culture and recent Parisian urban renewal projects. Several of the essays provide excellent analyses of the cultural im­ pact of the new world of information on the profession of librarianship , the publishing world, and the nature ofknowledge. Linguistics scholar Geoffrey Nunberg examines the impact of digital media on the conventions and characteristics of publishing and the diffusion of knowledge in “The Places of Books in the Age of Electronic Re­ production.” When knowledge is stored digitally and can be end­ lessly manipulated, what is the meaning of such terms as “edition,” 818 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE “publication,” or “authoritative text”? Law librarian Robert Berring ’s essay, “Future Librarians,” examines the choices open to the profession of librarianship now that librarians need no longer func­ tion as custodians of information stored in physical form. When there are no longer books to select, distribute, or guard, what hap­ pens to the former “guardians of knowledge”? Berring does indeed see a significant role for librarians to play and delineates several choices open to them. Law professor Jane C. Ginsburg’s essay, “Copyright Without Walls? Speculations on Literary Property in the Library of the Future,” explores the current copyright law concept of “fair use” and its application in an increasingly digital world. It is essential reading for authors, publishers, orjust about anyone who has ever photocopied or reproduced copyrighted materials. These essays raise thoughtful and provocative questions on the nature of a world we have taken for granted, one that is now undergoing a paradigm shift. For other essays in this book, the intended audience is less clear— which in turn tends to obscure the intended audience for this book. It is difficult to imagine that the same readers who would be inter­ ested in the interpretive essays, most ofwhich are quite good, would be equally interested in the “documents of our time,” or that those interested in copyright questions or the future role of librarians would necessarily be interested in the essays on library architecture. By casting its net widely to appeal to librarians, public...