Vanilla to Rocky Road: Librarians and Access

I have just finished reading Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat (yes, I'm a bit behind on my reading list), and a few of his concepts about adaptability and collaboration have been percolating in my brain...to collide with this excellent LJ article by Barbara Fister on academic librarians and information accessibility. Fister addresses the question that seems to drive librarian anxieties about everything from Google Books to the open access movement: what happens to librarians when information becomes 'free'?

Or, in other words, "when the traditional work of libraries is shifted to things other than buying and organizing physical containers of information, how will we justify our existence?"

I found myself applying Friedman's framework to this question, as he presents a comprehensive and engaging summary of the growth of the Internet and the digital worldwide collaboration that is reshaping our world today.

In simple terms, Friedman argues that as certain functions become digitized, streamlined, and/or automated (be it accounting work or systems maintenance, etc), they become "vanilla" skills -- cheap and interchangeable. Therefore, company or person who relies on a "vanilla" platform will soon find themselves obsolete. Remaining relevant and competitive depends upon one's added value to the basic functions (i.e. the chocolate sauce), through the particular specialized services or quality of work you provide.

Which is exactly what Fister is talking about when she argues that "we need to separate our value -- the way we curate information, champion its availability in the face of intolerance of unpopular ideas and economic disparity, and create conditions for learning how to find and use good information -- from the amount of money it takes to acquire stuff on the not-so-open market." Because as 'information' in bulk becomes cheaper (down to the 'free' of a Google search page), simply 'getting information' of any kind becomes a skill that everyone shares, including the seven-year-old on her laptop. Librarians do not want to be competing on the same level as a seven-year-old.

Fister believes that our ability to judge and provide quality information is what distinguishes us, and I agree -- there is more 'stuff' than ever out there for people to search through, but most of it is still junk. And what patrons really value is getting the right stuff, without losing time to a frustrating and demoralizing search that siphons off your will to live (witness the glazed expressions of those students approaching the reference desk).

On a broader view, Fister sees the arenas of 'added value librarianship' particularly in the blending of "creating, curating, and publishing" that is happening in academic communities online (particularly in the e-journals realm). The recent partnerships with libraries and university presses, digital library projects, and librarian collaboration with the open access movement are just a few examples to keep in mind. Fister reassures her readers that librarians' roles are changing, but "the value of what we do will still be there," because quality information is still valued.

Or as Friedman might say, everybody loves a sundae; instead of vanilla, we just need to focus on becoming the chocolate sauce and whipped cream (which, as everyone knows, is what makes a sundae).