Ebooks leave librarians out of work
15 May 2013
From Global Times:
Ebooks might be convenient, but they come at a cost. The spread of ebooks has driven circulation down in China’s university libraries, and even caused some librarians to lose their jobs.
. . . .
Hankou’s library is now lending 68,000 less books a year compared to 2010. But ebook access at a nearby school has increased from 356 to 44,556 since 2009.
Link to the rest at Global Times
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Two points.
1. Everything comes with a cost. That’s the way of the universe.
2. Didn’t I just read somewhere (maybe TPV) that China is ignoring eBooks due to (perceived) substandard writing?
Dan
Buggy makers were left w/o a job when automobiles took off.
+1
I suspect that the duties & responsibilities of librarians in China is different from here in the the US or in China. Even if the medium has changed, libraries will still need professionals to acquire & maintain collections, & to help users to find information in those collections.
But if in China “librarian” also includes the clerks who shelve books & keep them in order — & maybe even clerks who do little more than sit at desks & maintain order in the reading rooms — then I can understand that the number of “librarians” would drop.
I feel suspect about information coming out of China about e-books. I don’t know for sure, but judging by the articles PG posts, it seems as though there’s a fairly intense anti-propaganda drive going on there.
I’m not saying this article is inaccurate, I know little about the situation, but I need more information before reaching a conclusion. The information I do see conflicts and appears to be designed to provoke emotion.
While I’ve stopped chewing my nails over grammatical and spelling errors in posts, even most blogs, to find “lending 68,000 less books a year” in an article meant to appeal to writers and readers (no?), made me grit my teeth in helpless frustration. Are there no competent teachers of English left anywhere in the world, that “less (things that can be counted)” is proliferating like bedbugs or fleas? AMOUNTS can be less. NUMBERS must be fewer. Dang. Well…nobody reads books anymore, but everyone is writing one. Entropy.
I hear you RLB, and there are many new ways in our time that do not reflect the days of our learning. Language evolves. Some may ‘sound’/ look ‘wrong’… but it will march on with or without us. I’m reminded of my father who spoke another language fluently, going back to his home place in modern times and having trouble understanding the modern version of his own mother tongue. Everything rolls onward, with or without us. We can hold the frame though, in our own ways, as long as we are alive.
Just my .02
“Well…nobody reads books anymore, but everyone is writing one. Entropy.”
Good one.
Dan
Change is one thing — I’ve seen plenty — but if standards erode across the board, pretty soon no language is left. There USED to be such a thing as “standard English” that schools taught and students learned and used. They got into better jobs and media posts with those skills. There was respect for people who could command their mother tongue, no matter where or how they grew up. Alas, the standard bearers who used to write books about this have all died, and their books are cast on the rubbish heaps. I upheld that frame when I was teaching, and maintained it in my writing; but aside from marketing and socializing, my language is quickly veering toward the visual arts. So I’m adapting. But I see the End from here.
Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but I do find it interesting to think about how, in the thousands of years since Mankind invented the written word, we’ve had roughly two and a half centuries during which there was any kind of real standard regarding spelling and grammar.
Now, with access to more venues, forms, and methods of communication than ever before, the very nature of how we communicate is evolving at a breakneck pace.
If the End is in sight, that’s probably because we’re on the eve of a new Beginning.
Actually, doing the math, if one sets the date for the creation of written communication at around 3,000 BC, and the creation of Standard English with Johnson’s Dictionary in 1755, during only 5% of the history of the written word has there been any widely accepted Standard for English. Which is only one of hundreds of languages, all of which probably encompass tens of thousands of dialects, all of which are constantly evolving.
Where’s that End, again?
You’d have to document some sources to prove that other dialects are “constantly evolving.” What usually happens is that the dominant language eradicades the lesser one. So I’m looking at the End of English as a dominant language because fewer and fewer of its users are fluent in either speaking or writing it. Mishmash will be the New Standard, and heaven help anyone who thinks communication will benefit. You do realize, don’t you, you’re discussing this with an ex-English teacher who studied that kind of thing. While Johnson might have THOUGHT he was creating a standard, my guess is that few Englishmen (or women, or unschooled children) bothered to follow it.
Yes, I gathered your profession and your opinion from your first couple of posts. I think this world you believe is ending to be a complete and utter fantasy, dreamed up by those of you who live under the delusion that “the End is nigh.”
I also work in the field of Communication in Higher Ed. Visual Journalism. Communication Theory. Emerging Media Studies. I think most of my faculty would laugh in your face.
Enjoy suffering through the Decline and Fall of Western Civilization!