Andrew Abbott. May 2006. Univeristy of Chicago.
B. Library Research and Technology
We must avoid the common trap of thinking that "knowledge" is whatever the new knowledge technologies of the moment happen to produce. We have to have an independent concept of knowledge and compare library research arrangements for whether they are better or worse when measured by that independent concept. And indeed when we employ the independent definition of library-based knowledge just proposed, it is clear that most of the technologies that today aim to automate or simplify or replace parts of library research do not in fact accomplish what it accomplishes now, but rather do something different to a greater or lesser extent.
Thoughtful discussion of the report here at Family Man Librarian.
To understand why professors need great libraries, says Andrew Abbott, “you need to think about an ape swinging through the trees.”--Andrew Abbott.
Abbott, Andrew. The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. 452 p. 1988
