John E. Buschman - Böcker

Constant developments in information technology are creating fundamental changes in librarianship. This book challenges the uncritical acceptance of these changes caused by technology. The volume begins by explaining the importance of a critical approach to information technology in librarianship. The first part of the book then explores the fundamental critical issues at the heart of technology in the library. Chapters in this section consider such topics as the neutrality of technology, information technology and censorship, the role of computers in education, and the sometimes critical views of scientists on technology. The second part of the volume looks more closely at issues related to the application of technology in librarianship. These chapters discuss technology and the civic role of libraries, the political apsects of electronic information, and the role of technology in the labor process. A selected bibliography concludes the work.

This work presents a thorough examination of librarianship and the social and economic contexts in which the profession and its institutions operate. As a basis of analysis, Buschman employs critical education scholarship and the research of German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, whose seminal work on the public sphere—the arena in which the public organizes itself and formulates public opinion—serves as a meta-framework for Buschman's study of librarianship. Buschman asserts that a significant shift has occurred from the library as a contributor to the public good to a model where economic rationality directs policy. He challenges much of the current thinking and assumptions guiding libraries, exploring the circumstances in which librarians and libraries operate and linking the profession back to democratic and public purposes as the core essence of the field.Chapters include:• Crisis Culture and the Need for a Defense of Librarianship in the Public Sphere• The New Public Philosophy and Critical Educational Analysis• The Public Sphere: Rounding Out the Context of Librarianship• Studies in Librarianship and the Dismantling of the Public Sphere• Follow the Money: Library Funding and Information Capitalism• Follow-the-Leader Library Management and the New Public Philosophy• On Customer Driven Librarianship• Drifting Toward the Corporate Model: ALA• Notes on Postmodern Technology, Technocracy, and Libraries• The Public Sphere and Democratic PossibilityHighly recommended for courses in policy and librarianship, as well as for academic and public library directors, this work will also be of interest to theorists in the social sciences.

Libraries, as a component of cultural space, are ubiquitous to almost every society during almost every time period. However, as places of cultural and symbolic and intellectual meaning, they have varied greatly. To capture both aspects, this collection of 14 original papers covers library spaces old and new, real and imagined, large and small, public and private. Contributions range from a consideration of the Garrison library in the British Empire, to the Carnegie library as a social institution, to the imagined library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The result is a fascinating look at the library as a physical, social, and intellectual place within the hearts and minds of its clientele and the public at large.

In the last 15 years, the ground - both in terms of technological advance and in the sophistication of analyses of technology - has shifted. At the same time, librarianship as a field has adopted a more skeptical perspective; libraries are feeling market pressure to adopt and use new innovations; and their librarians boast a greater awareness of the socio-cultural, economic, and ethical considerations of information and communications technologies. Within such a context, a fresh and critical analysis of the foundations and applications of technology in librarianship is long overdue.