26th
After reading this, I was tempted to go off on several of the points that were discussed, but since I don’t have all afternoon, I’ll keep it to just one criticism. All the “convenience” and the customization that they keep talking about in this report costs money - lots of it. In fact, I couldn’t help but notice that funding was the one thing that they didn’t make a prediction about.
To be fair, their goal seems to be to try and outline the type of student and institution that will exist in 2020 and I agree with many of the points. The thing that irks me is that there is no discussion about what implications these points may have. People can’t afford higher education? Sure, I can see them turning to some kind of alternative solution, but what are the costs associated with that? People want to take classes online? No problem, but until the US invests in a next generation digital infrastructure, colleges will be hampered in what they can offer. I could go on and on and don’t get me started about the statement that just about everything is out there for free on the Internet. I’ll stop here, though, and try to shift back to more mundane things like trying to connect students to all that “free” info out there.
It’s nice to see a generally positive library-related story in the news, but I do have a couple of gripes. First, I wish that the reporters wouldn’t refer to these library services as “free”. They’re not. They are paid for by taxpayer dollars. If you’re taking all this time to talk about how great libraries are, why not also educate people a little bit about a positive use of taxpayer money?
Second, I wish librarians would stop referring to grad school as “library school” as one of the librarians in the interview did. Yes, yes, I know all about the angst librarians feel over not being treated as professionals (not that I buy all of it) like lawyers and doctors and the snide remarks made about the rigor (or lack thereof) of LIS programs. Still, why not just say grad school? You don’t hear lawyers saying, “Oh, things are a lot different now then went I went to lawyer school.” If you did, would you hire that person? I doubt it. So why should someone take a librarian seriously when they use the phrase “library school” to refer to their master’s program?
I guess we all know who got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning! :- )