The Future of the Renaissance

I have long ago stopped predicting the future. It is possible to spot trends and see where they will lead if nothing else changes, but something else always changes and acts upon those trends which then slow, reverse themselves, or find completely new directions to move in that no one could have forseen. That is, of course, because so many things are always happening at the same time that keep anything from flowing in a predictable straight line. That approach seems to me more realistic than outright pessimism or optimism. (Besides, I cannot afford to be a pessimist.)

This entry is in response to John N. Berry's article in Library Journal, "The Vanishing Librarian." http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6529375.html Librarians the web over are commenting on it for good or for ill, and I add my own strong reaction. Anyone familiar with my blog will know better than to tell me to simply get with the times. I covered that line in an earlier entry. Change just is, and just because you are smart enough to know that a change is in the wind doesn't mean you automatically have the knowledge that that change is for the best. And no, I'm not talking about turning back the clock. Continuing education is always on my agenda. It isn't always easy to know exactly how to prioritize the things I need to learn in order to function in this new world of astonishing technology, but I am keeping up as best I know how. The fact that I am maintaining this blog is evidence of that. Like change is just change, technology is just technology. It is an enabler. We can choose to be really smart and knowledgeable and superciliously sophisticated and say, "We gotta use it now! And anyone who is having trouble with it better just git over it and start usin' it, buster, 'else you're gonna git left behind in the mad rush to git where we're all goin'." I rather enjoy taking that attitude myself after I've just learned a new technology, like blogging. I'm not up to taking it with RSS feeds, online image generators, LibraryThing, Technorati, Social Networking and other online tools yet, but the day will come soon because I'm working at it.

No, it's not technology I'm complaining about. It's another kind of trend. It's the trend that assumes that if you can do something because it makes life easier for one person for a short time, you should do it regardless of the consequences. If we can save money by paying people less, let's do it. If we can be more efficient by hiring less knowledgeable employees, let's do it. If people are satisfied when they come into the library, thinking that they can find any piece of information they want with google or wikipedia, let them think that, especially if the "librarians" you've hired don't know any better, either. (And don't for a minute think I am dismissing the brilliance of many well-rounded and well-educated reference librarians who merely lack the benefit of an MLS. I'm talking about hiring Joe Blow off the street whose main qualifications are that he can count to two and sign his name "because people only ask directional questions anymore, anyway.") If a dumbed-down society of knuckleheaded klutzes makes for efficiency and profit, let's have it.

Now, that sort of thing appeals to some people, and I'll let them have their preferences, although I think their tastes are dull and bland and insensitive, and Renaissance Man will fight to the death to keep the dark ages from returning. (After I'm dead, I won't care anymore and you'll have to fight your own battles.) Many of those people to whom the dark ages have appeal as the next new, mod, "in" thing will say I am critical of capitalism. Let me remind them that today's public libraries are the result of Andrew Carnegie's dream. He supported and funded libraries because he loved learning for its own sake, and not merely for the sake of profit and efficiency. He didn't spend his leisure time reading about business cycles and economic forecasting to advance his career. He was interested in history, poetry, literature, philosophy, astronomy, theology. He made his fortune so he could retire early and travel in Europe and associate with the greatest minds of his day and learn for the sheer joy and fulfillment it brought him. His aim was to live life to the fullest, and, believing it a sin to die rich, gave an entire nation an abundant number of public libraries in order that all Americans could enjoy what he had to struggle for in his youth. Last time I checked, Bill Gates had similar values.

So yes, we have to keep up with technology. Its flow is out of our hands. We can only learn to swim in that new world. But the kind of world we will live in as human beings, the way people treat one another, the values we place on human relations and learning and joyful and abundant living, is not a foregone conclusion. Technology does not and cannot make those decisions for us. We will make those decisions or we will allow someone less scrupulous than we are to make them for us. And those are decisions no one is exempt from. "But," someone argues, "how can everyone make those decisions when everyone isn't knowledgeable enough?" If you value your public libraries and the knowledge your public librarians have to offer, you won't have to ask that question.