Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
participate in the creation and dissemination of information; the process is no
longer one-way communication to the consumer. We are seeing the emergence
of a new paradigm in information transfer. The complexities that accompany this
emergent paradigm in information transfer require a knowledgeable profession to
organize and disseminate it, the province of the library and information profes-
sions.
Libraries Evolve within the Information Infrastructure
In this complex world of competing and converging technologies, librarians play
a vital role as mediators and leaders in this swirling array of fast technological
change. The major role of the librarian was to catalog or arrange items for retrieval.
We can generalize that a civilization progressed when it developed a written lan-
guage and archived records from its past. Primitive societies lacking an alphabet
were unable to create a record of events as they developed. The consequence
was a lack of access to the past beyond the human memory for their myths, songs,
and folk customs. Without archives of their past, they could not advance beyond
the knowledge that could be remembered, and they tended not to advance to a
sophisticated state.
Historical Development of Libraries
Libraries were not widespread and available to the masses until the Industrial
Revolution, which brought the rise of cities, industry, and printing. We can trace
the history of libraries back 5,000 years and categorize ancient libraries into four
groups: (1) government, (2) religious, (3) commercial, and (4) private or family lib-
raries.
The first, government libraries, collected the treaties, legislation, and genealogy
of the royal family, lines of succession, and other recorded documents pertinent to
governance in a variety of formats; for example, clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, and
parchment. The information was recorded manually, and the information sources
were arranged physically by subjects, often in different rooms.
Religious libraries contained rules for the education of the clergy. The creed of
the religion was recorded and stored—the beliefs, sacred writings, and rituals of
the religion or sect.
Private libraries archived the private papers of families, including records of
property holdings. They also held records of the relationships between the family
and rulers or government of the day.
Commercial libraries stored and organized the records of commerce. This in-
cluded business transactions, business papers, and other records of various kinds.
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