The arrival
of the digital age is greatly transforming libraries. Going forward, what is
the exact role a library should play? What is needed to be able to make
efficient use of these vast book repositories? In search of answers, The Asahi
Shimbun Globe sat down and spoke with two experts in the field.
SHUNYA YOSHIMI: THE LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE
More than 500 years have passed since Johannes Gutenberg
started the printing revolution. Today, with the advent of digital technology,
the dissemination of information is exploding around the globe.
In the world of the Internet, where anyone can be an
originator of information, we are already saturated with an abundance of news,
facts and figures. The key then is “how to combine and reuse all this
accumulated information.” What is required is a method for unearthing and
extracting important bits from a large quantity of accumulated information and
combining them into new creations. Since ancient times, the basic system of the
library, which makes a vast amount of written material easily accessible by
searching an index, has served that purpose. Much more than we give it credit
for, the library is still a futuristic entity.
However, problems stand in the way of the library being
able to fully exhibit its potential. First, a public processing system related
to copyrights and intellectual property rights is needed so material for which
the owner or copyright holder is unknown can be publicly used. Second, it is
necessary to train a new type of librarian who will be responsible for the
digital knowledge base. As a profession, we must create an “advanced digital
librarian” fully versed in information technology and intellectual property
law.
When paper-based books are turned into digital media,
they often blend text, video and sound. Books in the next century will probably
look nothing like they do today, and the differences between museums,
libraries, art museums and archives will become obscure. Information pertaining
to the collected works, documents, records and books at each institution will
be shared. When that happens, new value will be created via accumulating,
storing, retrieving and reusing such information, and a social, institutional
structure will be required.
An example of what I mean is the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake
Archives that the National Diet Library is endeavoring to create. In the hope
of contributing to disaster management and prevention, the archives are focused
on gathering all records associated with the earthquake and creating a database
that anyone will be able to search. The materials being collected range from
official documents to personal websites and include sound and video along with
traditional text and still images. If it is realized, the archives will
probably serve as a kind of predecessor for the “library of the future.”
The European Union is already building a huge digital
library, Europeana, in an attempt to unify European knowledge possessed by
libraries, museums and archives across the continent.
In kanji-using cultures such as Japan, China and South
Korea, there is also an accumulation of shared historical culture. It would
probably be possible to build an East Asian multilingual digital library.
First, however, Japan should build a “library of the future” that can serve as
a model.
Source | http://ajw.asahi.com/
