Exploring Ideas from Here Comes Everybody - Part 2: Scribes and Scrolls, Librarians and Libraries
To get us in the mood for thinking about scribes and scrolls and new technologies, I've re-posted this humorous video about the Medieval Help Desk.Helpdesk support back in the day of the middle age
with English subtitles. Original taken from the show "Øystein og jeg" on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)in 2001
with English subtitles. Original taken from the show "Øystein og jeg" on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)in 2001
Consider the position of the scribe in the early 1400s. The ability to write, one of the crowning achievements of human inventiveness was difficult to attain and, as a result, rare. ... scribes performed the essential service of refreshing cultural memory. p. 66
Now consider the position of the scribe at the end of the 1400's. Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the middle of the century had created a sudden and massive reduction in the difficulty of reproducing a written work. p. 67
A scribe, someone who had given his life over to literacy as a cardinal virtue, would be conflicted about the meaning of movable type. After all if books are good, surely more books are better. p. 67
Scribes did not disappear immediately. In fact the old order continued and was championed. Scribes served a gatekeeping role that came about because of the limits of technology.
Now consider libraries and librarians before the Internet and after the Internet. Librarians were the gatekeepers to vast storehouses of knowledge. We collected, categorized, organized, and provided access to the storehouse. Essentially we were gatekeepers. Sometimes technological changes can threaten a profession and its role. Overall the change is a benefit society.
Where do libraries and librarians offer value in the Internet age where full text/image indexing of almost all knowledge is possible, where users can access more information from their desktop then they could only access in some research libraries just two decades ago, and where unlimited copyability is possible?
We can and do offer a great deal but we have to open our minds and think in terms of the new paradigm: abundance.
Exploring Ideas from Here Comes Everybody
- Part 1: Libraries in an Age of Abundance
- Part 2: From Scribes and Scrolls to Librarians and Libraries
- Part 3: Conversations and Collections
Other Posts about Clay Shirky's Book
Tags: abundance | book | change | Clay Shirky | copyability | funny video | Here Comes Everybody | humor | library | quote | scarcity | technology
