Book Review: Are Libraries Obsolete? An Argument for Relevance in the Digital Age
Are Libraries Obsolete? An Argument for Relevance in the Digital Age. By Mark Y. Herring. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. 258 p. $25 softcover (ISBN: 978-0-7864-7356-4).
In 2001, a legislator told Mark Herring “everything was on the Internet, so why did our students need a new, big library building?” (7). Herring responded by publishing a brief and highly popular list, “10 Reasons Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library.”1 Six years later, Herring transformed that list into a book, Fool’s Gold: Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library (McFarland 2007). Both the list and book outline in passionate detail Herring’s view that the Internet’s many flaws make it inferior to the library. “Not everything is on the Internet” writes Herring, and “quality control doesn’t exist. . . . The Internet is ubiquitous but books are portable.”2 His latest book, Are Libraries Obsolete? An Argument for Relevance in the Digital Age, revisits points made in his earlier works. Thirteen years after Herring’s original list was published, has the Internet made the library obsolete? Herring says no.
Are Libraries Obsolete is divided into three parts. The first part returns to Herring’s 2001 list, updating each of his ten points. Part two outlines four areas that Herring believes have been made worse by the Internet: reading, literacy, privacy, and piracy. Part three describes the current state of the library and provides two possible scenarios for the future: one positive and one much more dismal.
Most of the book is devoted to part 1, which begins with the chapter “Everything Is Still Not on the Internet.” This sets the tone for the rest of the book. Everything is still the way it was in 2001, according to Herring. The Internet is still too large and complicated for the average user to navigate. There is still no quality control. Some information found on the web might be misleading or incorrect. The average user, making their way through this bramble without the help of a librarian, is likely to stumble upon misinformation or distractions. They might sacrifice their right to privacy. Their eyes will hurt from staring at a screen for too long. They might find pornography. Herring paints the Internet as a dangerous place and tries to convince his readers that they would be much safer and more comfortable sticking to the familiar and trusted stacks of their libraries.
This is very much the same argument Herring made in his “10 Reasons” in 2001, a perspective that now appears dated. In part three, he describes what he sees as new challenges to the library. We are faced with staff who are unwilling to change and unable to keep up with technology. Our patrons are moving online, as are our collections, and our spaces and buildings are becoming “less about books and much more about social gathering places” (183). As for funding and politics, Herring writes that “libraries have for too long been the financial black holes at institutions, costing small and large fortunes, but not creating much in the form of a revenue stream” (182). Herring also sees a political climate that is turning against us. Disappointed with our lack of revenue, politicians are eliminating funding for public and academic libraries. For this, he blames librarians themselves. He urges us to “remain politically neutral” (208), so as not to anger our political leaders. “Ideas have consequences,” he writes, “and if we carve out a niche that is strongly opposed to ruling parties, we have only ourselves to blame when those parties are in power” (208).
Overall, the book lacks focus and is written with the defensive tone of someone who perhaps worries that he is becoming obsolete. Herring refers to his age so often, and speaks so disparagingly of those younger than he, it becomes a distraction to his main points. He writes, “those who are under thirty will laugh at this and say this is only a function of my age” (27). His statistics are seemingly lifted from thin air, without citation. “In fact,” he claims, “libraries account for almost 35 percent of all Internet access outside the home” (28). Throughout the book, he fixates on the amount of pornography available on the Internet. “The web,” according to Herring, “is rich and deep, but also vulgar and rude” (115). His tone is riddled with sexist microaggression. “YouTube videos of young men acting the fool, or worse, young girls imitating what they think might be appealing at some level to someone, crowd the Internet” (49). A bit later he writes, “A founding principle of Americanism is abundance, or so it would seem. If one is good, one hundred is better. We apply this to almost everything: cars, boats, guns, dollars, Starbucks, wine, women” (67).
With public and academic libraries across the country losing funding and often closing their doors, it is important to argue for relevance in the digital age. Herring may not be the right person to fight this fight. It would be more useful to offer a book on the use of technology to improve library services rather than one about a man disappointed with the way the world has changed around him. Issues of concern to librarians, such as net neutrality and its impact on the library, would have been a good addition to this book, but Herring does not address it. Those who agree with Herring might find his meanderings amusing. Anyone who enjoyed his first book might also find value in Are Libraries Obsolete, as it reiterates many of the same points.—Melissa De Fino (mdefino@rulmail.rutgers.edu), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
References
- Mark Y. Herring, “10 Reasons Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library,” American Libraries 32, no. 4 (2001): 76–78.
- Ibid.