O Bibliotecário 2.0 (Arquivo)

Andava eu a consultar referências primárias e depois de ler muitas referências a “What are digital libraries? Competing visions” de Christine L. Borgman, publicado em Information Processing and Management: an International Journal Volume 35 ,  Issue 3  (May 1999). Special issue on progress toward digital libraries, Pages: 227 – 243 ISSN:0306-4573,  lá consegui o documento.

É um texto deveras lindo e historicamente muito exclarecedor:

A certa altura a Drªa Borgman (Department of Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles) adianta o seguinte aparte:

As is evident from the defenitions presented in the next section, librarians tend to take a broad view of the concept of a `library’. Stated in general terms, they see libraries as organizations that select, collect, organize, conserve, preserve and provide access to information on behalf of a community of users. […]With the advent of computer networks and digital media, libraries will employ yet another delivery system for yet another form of media.

In this sense, the term `digital library’ connotes `the future library’, in which the institution is transformed to address the new environment in which it exists.
[…]
Most of the defenitions arising from the research community, especially those set forth by computer scientists, tend toward a narrower view of the concept of a `library’. Their emphasis is on databases and information retrieval and thus on collecting, organizing and providing access to information resources.[…] The narrow scope of the term `library’ follows from earlier uses in computer science research and practice in reference to any collection of similar materials.
[…[ To the computer scientists]] The term `digital library’ serves as a convenient and familiar shorthand to refer to electronic collections and conveys a sense of richer content and fuller capabilities than do terms such as `database’ or `information retrieval system’. […] Predictions by computer scientists of a declining role for librarians in a digital age (e.g. Odlyzko, 1995, 1997; Schatz, 1997) are predicated on a constrained view of the present and future role of libraries.

Despite the tensions between these perspectives, the communities have not engaged in direct discussion to the extent that might be expected.

E agora para o que me deixou maravilhado:

On the research front, some in library and information science (LIS) take computer scientists to task for reinventing their research on organization of information, information retrieval, user interfaces and related topics; they are more likely to do so in conference discussion sessions or in private than in print, however. Computer science researchers counter that LIS researchers are bound by a narrow paradigm and pay insucient attention to computer science accomplishments.
[…]
The diversity of meaning of the term `digital library’ continues to be evident in conference programs, however, with odd juxtapositions of papers that bear more similarity in title than in content.

E depois então vêm as diversas tentativas de enquadramento do conceito “biblioteca digital” que tornam este artigo num dos mais citados a partir da sua publicação em 1999 (em termos de biblioteconomia digital praticamente a pré-história).

PS:as referências, as referências…

Odlyzko, A. M. (1995). Tragic loss or good riddance? The impending demise of traditional scholarly journals. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 42, 71±122.

Odlyzko, A. M. (1997). Silicon dreams and silicon bricks: the continuing evolution of libraries. Library Trends, 46(1), 152±167.

Schatz, B. R. (1997). Information retrieval in digital libraries: bringing search to the Internet. Science, 275(N5298),
327±334.