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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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by Gordon Francis Corbett
A Commentary on the Matter of Libraries and Computers Clifford Stoll is an astronomer whose work at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories taught him to use computers. When he stumbled across a hacker who had finagled a way into LBL's computers, and who proceeded from there into computers operated by the Defense Department, he tracked him down. He turned out to be a West German stringer for the K.G.B. Stoll wrote about this in a book called, "The Cuckoo's Egg," which the P.B.S. later made into a documentary. Later, he wrote another book called, "Silicon Snake Oil." Here, he argues that salesmen and alleged authorities have vastly oversold computers, ascribing to them non-existent and even impossible capacities. He warns especially against the wholesale supplantation of libraries by computer-based information systems, a process that often begins with the destruction of the libraries' card catalogues. Card catalogues need maintenance. Maintenance takes time, and the expenditure of time requires dedication. Cards from books that have been, well, "discarded," must be removed. Torn or soiled cards must be replaced. New books need cards prepared and installed. This induces a deadly tedium. So, when some hotshot salesman flashes a brochure promising "computer liberation," the librarians lobby their bosses. After all, computers are MODERN! Soon, the catalogues gather dust in a warehouse or "go up the chimney." Where they stood, now sit a few computer terminals. Maintaining the new "catalogue" still takes work. Although tapping on an electronic keyboard beats pounding a mechanical one, boredom is boredom. But, not to worry! Commercial programmers like Microsoft constantly revise their wares. Subscribing to these "database" revisions could make all of the nasty drudgery disappear. The librarian might disappear, too. After all, workers earn money by working. If librarians no longer have to work long hours to maintain their "catalogues," and if patrons need only sit before a computer and type to learn where to obtain what, the library needs mostly minimum-wage, pimply-faced, grade-school dropouts to meet, greet, and sweep. Unfortunately, the new bibliophobia wreaks far worse harm. Since its inception, our country has been rife with disputes between differing political philosophers, whose adherents compete to expand or to contract governmental power. "Winners" explain plans. "Losers" refute errors, suggest improvements, and advocate ousting the winners. Libraries supply ideas and facts to all. That is their historical role, but now, supposed progress threatens it. When San Francisco built a new building for its library, it was outfitted well for computers, but lacked the structural strength for the books! Consequently, many books were thrown away. Others were taken in by private citizens. Perhaps some of them will finally be returned to library service in another city. What happened in San Francisco may have been arrant stupidity, but a greater hazard threatens. Libraries are being destroyed! Books, you see, are inefficient. Computers deliver more "bang for the buck." A whole Library of Congress can be stored on a few compact discs; so, all we need are the discs, or something equally economical, and a few computer terminals and printers. Bovine scatology. Putting books' data on magnetical media is folly, because they are vulnerable to a host of hazards. Putting them on compact discs is better, but takes a lot of time. Time costs money, and money comes out of budgets. Who shall decide which books and magazines to convert? Tyrants have always controlled people best by limiting their information, and budgetary constraints provide marvellous pretexts for excluding dissidents' books and periodicals. I once worked for a textbook publisher that also makes, sells, and grades standardized tests. Working with many others in large rooms, I graded essay tests. During a slack period, our bosses trained us on the company's editing manual. This manual proscribed different styles of treatment. Example: imagine a manuscript for a proposed text in United States history. Its author describes the "Civil Rights" struggle of the 'fifties and 'sixties evenhandedly, as a controversy revolving around specific arguments used by the respective sides. The manual disallowed that. The book could describe the struggle only in Liberal terms, and could list only the Liberal arguments. That is not history, but propaganda. The Oxford English Dictionary defines propaganda as, "Any association, systematic scheme, or concerted movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine or practice." Of course, that was merely the policy of one company; but in this day of so-called "political correctness," similar strictures probably bind them all. Can we believe that similar restrictions, overt or covert, would not govern the choice of which books and periodicals to convert? When Mao Tse-tung wantedto prevent future generations from reading old history books and classical Chinese literature, he had scholars "simplify" Chinese ideography. Learning the "simplified" ideographs let people communicate, but prevented their reading the old books. Mao had cut off a billion people from their past. Eric Blair, whose pen name was George Orwell, said: "He who controls the past, controls the future." We must permit no one to control the past, so that we may all control our own futures.
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