From Gutenberg to the Global Information   Infrastructure

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	Issues in Science and Technology   Librarianship
	Winter 2001

	DOI:10.5062/F4GH9FXH



      

  Book Reviews
    From Gutenberg to the Global Information   Infrastructure
      Veronica Calderhead
  Physical Sciences Librarian and Collection Development Coordinator
  John Cotton Dana Library
  Rutgers University Libraries
calderhd@andromeda.rutgers.edu        


   

  From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure : Access to  Information in the Networked World. By Christine L. Borgman.  (Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing Series) Cambridge, Mass. ;  London : MIT Press, c2000. 324 p. hardcover $40.00. (ISBN 0-262-02473-X)  
      A recent CIA report both warns about and encourages the exploitation of  the information networks criss-crossing around us. This mixed message from  intelligence sources strongly resembles the two-sided approach taken by  Christine L. Borgman in this book: the strengths of the global information  infrastructure (GII) and the troubling downside, if neglected, i.e., the  confusion to users. The book demonstrates the magnitude of the GII of  today but mostly what it might look like tomorrow and how we must get  there from today while making it accessible and useful to our lives. In  other words, it is important to provide digital codes and standards that  are interoperable, portable and multilingual. The technology will  inevitably be there, the bigger challenge will be to make these databases  widely available, socially relevant, extremely useful and economically  viable. These challenges are as ubiquitous as the bytes.

     The generic label "users" is overly simplistic. As Borgman demonstrates we  are all users as well as digital creators. We use for different reasons  at different times. Creating and diffusing information for "users" is  becoming as complex as the world in which these users live. This  illustrates another strength of this work; the working definitions of the  GII, the digital library, the user, access, behavior, standards and so on  are all clearly explained for the reader before the complexities are  discussed at length. 

     Borgman believes that a global information infrastructure is important and  upon us, that it behooves us to do it right at all levels; or as she  states it "think globally act locally" -- in a digital way. Her point that  working towards a global digital library would be good if even only to  delineate who all the users or user groups are. The value in further  defining their behaviors, their languages, their levels, their information  seeking behaviors, their problem solving abilities, benefits the entire  network. These are all very important variables in the expanding equation  of the GII. And, like all discussions that surround systems, be they local  systems or global, the crux of the matter is always the tradeoffs. Borgman  further discusses what the tradeoffs would be in reaching the widest of  audiences and the losses of limiting the nearly perfect system to a small  audience. 

     It strikes the reader how often the same big global problems of the GII  actually come up in our daily practical lives. Borgman's main thesis is  that the GII will be most effective if the multitude of systems, databases  and networks have "interoperability, portability and data exchange" as  their guiding principles. Regardless of the type of library we work in,  there are very few of us left who don't have to find answers to this  problem. 

     The illustrative examples used in many theory-based books can be dated,  repetitive and limited to a very small corner of expertise. Here too,  Borgman surpasses expectations, many examples are library-based, but they  are modern libraries with huge and varied databases. Other examples come  from meteorology, from early education, from computer and information  sciences. Her research takes us to all the corners touched by the global  information infrastructure. The validity in the examples alone prompts  one to probe the underlying theory and test it further. 

     This work is ideally suited to graduate students of communications,  library and information science, systems and computer sciences. Having  said that, on the very practical level, the front-line librarian charged  with bringing in any new electronic system, be it e-book packages, large  reference networked systems, or a new integrated bibliographic system,  will gain a wonderful broad perspective of how one library affects the GII  and vice versa. It should be noted that this book is not about technology  in the specific sense, it neither discusses a software over another, nor  provides technical advice to library systems people. Finally, the book  has extensive references in addition to updating and compiling all of  Borgman's earlier work on related topics. 

     

  

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