From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World

Citation

Duff, A.S. (2001), "From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World", Library Review, Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 42-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2001.50.1.42.3

As a leading professor with a long record of publication in information science, Christine Borgman should require no introduction. The volume under review is second in a series on Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing (series editor: William Y. Arms). Its subject‐matter, however, is doubly welcome in that it represents a contribution to information society studies as well as to electronic library research. These specialisms have on the whole developed independently with little more than momentary and token interfaces: texts on the information society rarely descend from the grand narratives of social change to comment on specific digital issues and applications; conversely electronic publishing texts, while often beginning with glowing references to technology’s potential to make a new society, tend quickly to lose any semblance of the sociological imagination. In Kierkegaard’s parlance, it has been a case of “either‐or”; here, however, we are treated to “both‐and”. Add to that a fluent writing style and first‐rate physical production (yet with a comparatively low price for a robust hardback) and the result is a work in every sense of the front rank. I therefore wish to take the unusual step of immediately recommending this book for purchase.

Borgman emphasises at the outset that the concept of the digital library is contested, a reflection of heterogeneous stakeholders. Librarians typically take a broad view of libraries as social institutions with multiple functions, including conservation and community service: for this constituency, then, the digital library is the future library, one which will fulfil such functions by means of digital media. By contrast, computer scientists see a digital library as essentially a glorified databank, and the facilitation of information retrieval as the overriding goal. While Borgman always impresses with her grasp of retrievalist literature, her sympathies seem to lie with the richer, humanistic definition. Nevertheless, the road to the electronic library, and beyond that to a global information infrastructure as backbone of a world‐wide information society, is strewn with tricky problems, and these are faced methodically. Metadata, standardisation, interoperability, interface design, navigation, language translation, automated and human indexing, information networking, migration strategies, and many other issues are examined under such evocative chapter titles as “Why Are Digital Libraries Hard to Use?” and “Whither, or Wither, Libraries?” (the latter recalling an influential paper by F.W. Lancaster). Borgman’s comments are circumspect, perceptive, and yet quietly optimistic. She does not gloss over the technical problems which still face the electronic library ideal, but neither does she throw up her hands in despair: instead she itemises a practicable research agenda, whose details I leave it to the reader to seek out.

The appeal of this work is that the proficient treatment of digital libraries is couched in a stimulating discussion of greater information society concerns. Of course, digital libraries are only one small aspect of information societies, but they are considered, currently at least, as a key “player”. In particular, digital libraries, and the universal electronic publishing of which they strive to be an embodiment, have been assigned by many observers a maieutic role in delivering popular access to information resources.

Borgman’s reflections in her chapter on access to information are excellent, as is her treatment of information‐seeking behaviour and the scholarly information chain. While ranging over diverse literatures, her central theme – the need to work effectively towards a global information infrastructure featuring digital libraries – is always readily apparent. A fascinating research report on the emerging, but still very much struggling, library and information scene in Eastern Europe throws considerable light on that theme.

Not surprisingly, then, the last chapter is entitled “Toward a global digital library: progress and prospects”. As Borgman points out, there are now two main challenges, first to scale the Internet “to a network which supports orders of magnitude more users, devices and capacity,” and second to “provide access to information in this expanded environment” (p. 225).

I will not reveal her solutions; suffice to say that they are balanced and lucid. If there is a shortcoming here it lies in a paucity of references to critical and sceptical perspectives on information society claims, but I think the author could quite justifiably reply by noting that the parameters of her discussion are already drawn widely enough.

This is of course a research‐level text, but it would also serve well on a student reading list, not least owing to the helpful page‐long summaries at the end of each chapter. My summary of the book as a whole can be much more abrupt. This important synthesis achieves the uncommon feat of negotiating both the normative and the experimental dimensions of information society development. All parties involved in any way with digital libraries and publishing will see the need to invest in it. But those whose interests are more philosophical or sociopolitical, and who perhaps therefore ought to sophisticate their understanding of technical matters, would also be well advised to buy at the earliest opportunity.