Libraries in the Age of Mediocrity

"I only wish I had your paper before me when I wrote Silicon Snake Oil"-Clifford Stoll. "Ultimately," says Earl Lee, "libraries are involved in the quest for truth, but conceptualize it in a way very different from most. Library professionals pursue a philosophy of inclusion, trying to have as many versions of Truth as possible, in the hopes that somewhere in the mass of material, something meaningful may be found by some discerning reader. But in recent years the mass of data has grown to bury truth and defeat the discerning. Librarians have lost sight of what is important." The uncontrollable mass of data, the transformation of the library to an information center, the demise of the card catalog, the meretriciousness of publishers' offerings, the dumbing down of textbooks, the decision by the Library of Congress to use the OCLC online system exclusively-these are all the subjects of thought-provoking and unsweetened opinions, welcome reminders of the rich tradition of intellectual freedom in the profession.