College and Research Libraries JOE B. WYATT Technology and the Library Technology has dramatically changed our environment and life-style, and more specifically information technology plays a role both in library admin- i~tration ~,nd in use of i~formation resources. Viewed in historical perspec- twe, the computer era is just beginning , and the prospect of the "elec- tronic book" is good. Librarians must be computer-literate and lead students and the public in the use of new information technologies . . As the most technologically advanced great nation in th e late twentieth century we are a center from which radiate the forces that unify human expe rience. Ideology, tribalism , nationalism , the crusading spirit in religion, bigotry, ce nsorship, racism , persecution , immigration and emigration restriction , tariffs , and chauvinism do interpose barriers. But these are only temporary . The con- ve rging powers of technology will eventually triumph . They triumph for a host of reasons which we are only beginning to discover. 1 I found this quotation an interesting in- troduction to a discussion on the role of technology and the library for two reasons. First, it comes from a distinguished histo- rian, not a scientist. Second, it states a ring- ing challenge for every person engaged in the information sciences. It comes from the for eword to a new book , Th e Republic of Technology , by- Daniel Boorstin , Librarian of Congress. I want to use this occasion to briefly ex- plore the hypothesis that technology, more specifically information technology , will have a more far-reaching effect on our soci- ety and other societies of the world than we can now imagine . I want you to consider the proposition that as professional librar- ians , one of the premier professions in the information field , you stand at the entrance to a gateway of opportunity that few profes- sionals have ever expe rienced. In the ver- nacular of the curre nt White House, you have the opportunity to be "born again." Joe B . Wyatt is vice-president for administra- tion , Harvard Unive rsity , Cambridge, Massachu- setts. 120 I I should warn you that the opportunity includes the obligation of an intellectual change not unlike the move from the shel- tered womb to the rigors and demands of the earthly environment. But opportunity as exciting and rewarding as you have before you usually carries the price of change. TECHNOLOGY IN OUR LIVES Technology has played a major role in the lives of Americans for several decades, and it continually dramatically changes our envi- ronment and our life-style. Permit me to characterize this personally in a brief anec- dote . I am professionally engaged as a teacher, researcher , and practitioner of computer science and technology. But I was born and raised on a small farm in Texas. When I was a youngste r , we heated the house and cooked with wood that we cut and split. We had no electrical power. We had no tele- phone. W e had no running water. As time passed , we got electrical power and the benefits of the electric tight. It was a long tim e before I had to stop drawing water out of the well. We didn' t get a telephone until I was a teenager . In other words, technol- ogy was minimal in my beginnings, and I do know how it feels to move "from the land to the machine . "2 (I may be one of the only computer scientists in the world who can harness and plow a mule.) This anecdote is clearly personal, but it characterizes the kind of change that my generation is experiencing. I think it impor- tant that you consider for a moment those changes that technology has brought to your own lives. Many people have viewed changes wrought by technology very nega- tively. Henry David Thoreau said in the late nineteenth century that "men have be- come the tools of their tools." But even Thoreau, whose writings lashed out at technology and societal change, had a per- sonal attitude toward technology that dif- fered from his oft-recorded view. First, he was an accomplished land surveyor and , as such, was a practitioner of technology. His surveying instruments can still be viewed at the Antiquarian Museum in Concord, Mas- sachusetts . Second, I am told on the best of authority that Thoreau, while ostensibly at Walden, occasionally sneaked back through the woods after dark to the Emerson house for some high-technology cooking! FUTURE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE As you may have already guessed, I view the prospects of technological change with great enthusiasm and hope. I do not long to return to a world in which there are no electrical power, no convenient water sup~ ply, and no telephone-not to mention the other conveniences offered by technology that free us for intellectual activity. I look forward to the contribution that technology can make to overcome societal problems in the future. For this discussion I would like to couch my enthusiasm in terms of the opportunities represented by information technology. I have spent a professional career in the field. I think that technology represents a great opportunity for those engaged in the infor- mation professions such as yourselves. My discussion of the role of technology in the library will be divided into two parts. The first part concerns the use of technology in the administration of libraries. The second part concerns the effect of information technology on the resources that will be a part of the library collection. After a brief visit to the first area, I will dwell on the second. TECHNOLOGY IN LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION The use of computer and communications technology in library administration has re- Technology I 121 ceived substantial attention over the last two decades. Their effect on one of the largest and most difficult of the administra- tive tasks, that of cataloging the collection, has been attacked exhaustively in the last few years-one might even say exhaust- ingly. But much progress has been made. Several systems are in operation now, and they continue to be developed and refined. I am very enthusiastic about that problem's being licked, with all due respect to those who are continuing to work away on it. The major conceptual and technological barriers are now passed, and it is time for refine- ment of systems and standards. TECHNOLOGY AND THE LIBRARY'S INFORMATION ROLE So much for the brief visit to the issue of information technology and library adminis- tration. Now for the issue of information technology and the informational role of the library . The Perspective of Time First, consider the perspective of time. In the history of mankind there have been four great inventions relating to information communication. The first was writing, begun by the Egyptians and Accadians about. five thousand years ago. Second was the development of an alphabet by the Greeks about three thousand years ago. The third was the invention of movable type bx the Koreans about seven hundred years ag; and developed independently by Gutenberg about five hundred years ago . The last of the great inventions is the stored program computer conceived by John Von Neumann about thirty years ago . Think for a moment about the time line that these four great inventions represent. It was two thousand years between the in- vention of writing and the alphabet. About two thousand years elapsed between the developments of the alphabet and movable type. And five hundred years passed be- tween the invention of movable type and the computer. But only thirty years have elapsed between the invention of the com- puter and today. Although the changes wrought in those thirty years are mind- stretching, if one looks at the perspective of time, the "computer era" is just beginning. 122 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 The thirty years are only a tiny fraction of any of the other historical intervals. --.. Early applications of the computer to in- formation problems occurred in laboratory environments with objectives like calculat- ing artillery tables and pred~cting the weather. (In the first case it was very suc- cessful, and in the second case it's making progress.) These computers were housed in large and expensively air-conditioned rooms. They were manifested in massive electronic and mechanical devices as late as 1955. And each one cost millions of dollars. Yet today the power of these devices, even computers more powerful than those early computers in every way, can be held in my hand, carried in my pocket, and used wherever I go. Moreover, these devices that I can hold in my hand have brothers and sisters, through the genealogy of large- scale integrated-circuit chips, that continu- ally find expanded roles in almost every human endeavor, particularly in the com- munication and processing of information. For example, I walked over to the Har- vard Coop early this morning to see a new gadget called Speak and Spell (a registered trademark of Texas Instruments, Inc.). It is a little box that ostensibly helps to teach youngsters spelling. It has a typewriter keyboard and a " vocabulary" of two hundred words or so. (According to the salesman , it will soon have a vocabulary of several thousand words.) The vocabulary is interchangeable by a switch of small mag- netic memories. Plans include a vocabulary of foreign languages. It is portable and bat- tery operated and costs fifty dollars. At its heart is a voice synthesis chip, a key inven- tion. It means that a small collection of LSI chips can take words spelled out in digital form , as from a computer, and convert them to high-quality audio output at a very low cost. To begin the process of getting your mind around where this little toy and its kin may be going, drop in to your local elec- tronics store and take a look. For those of you who haven't been there lately, your future holds a treat. You will find numerous examples of information technology that you can buy for your per- sonal use at prices well under a thousand dollars, that only a few years ago were not availa~le outside the laboratory and cost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. You may even begin to believe as I do that the "electronic book" is not just science fic- tion . The Information Industry Consider another perspective on the in- formation issue. In 1860 over 40 percent of the work force in the United States were farmers , and under 20 percent worked in factories. By 1950, at the peak of what we have come to call the industrial society , over 40 percent of the work force had moved to the factories , and only 10 percent stayed on the farm . Today half of the work force in _the United States are employed in what is called the information industry: pro- cessing, communicating, researching, de- veloping, and administering information in one form or another. Let me describe briefly an economic characterization of that information industry. In terms of a U.S . gross national product of 1,295 billion dollars in 1973, broadcast tele- vision accounted for 3.5 billion, cable televi- sion another 0.5 billion, radio 1.5 billion , newspapers 8.3 billion, books 4 billion, pe- riodicals 3. 7 billion, telephone 25.5 billion , postal service 8. 3 billion. Computer software in 1973 was already at the level of 3. 7 billion (not hardware , just software). And libraries accounted for 3. 5 billion. When one adds in computer hardware, ad- vertising, education , and other information enterprises , it comes to over 300 billion dol- lars. Banks, law firms , and a number of other " information businesses" would in- clude a marketplace that approaches 500 bil- lion dollars. Every one of these segments of the in- formation industry was growing then and is continuing to grow now. In this marketplace it is very clear that information distribution is becoming more decentralized and more personalized. Infonnation Literacy and Infonnation Growth The media are becoming more complex. Information literacy has become a problem along with information overload. As children some of us read everything we could get our hands on, but we couldn't get our hands on much to read. If a child of today tried to read or otherwise absorb all of the informa~ tion that is available, it would be absolutely impossible. In today' s society and even more in the future, it is a necessity to be both selectively literate and multitechnology literate to take advantage of available infor- mation resources. Kas Kalba, who heads a consulting firm that specializes in the information technol- ogy field, recently gave a partial list of the kinds of literacy that one needs: computer literacy, CB radio literacy, newsletter liter- acy, graphic arts literacy, on-line retrieval literacy, legal literacy, consumer informa- tion literacy, pocket calculator literacy. 3 Obviously, the list is not exhaustive in terms of the kinds and types of information that is not only available to us but is often thrust on us. I believe that if libraries are to remain active information resources then li- brarians must not only become multiliterate but must also bear a major responsibility for leading students and the public -to multilit- eracy in these new information technol- ogies. About a year ago Richard Atkinson, the director of the National Science Foundation, asked me to chair a multidisciplinary com- mittee to review the National Science Foundation's programs on information sci- ence, science information, and the like. It was one of the most productive such efforts that I have ever experienced. I know those of you from universities are likely to be en- gaged in endless task forces. This one, of course, produced a report that was added to all those other reports that line the shelves. But our report was only nineteen pages in length. It recommends, among other things, that the National Science Foundation estab- lish a new basic research program in infor- mation science and technology. The recommendation is being followed. A new Division of Information Science and Technology has been established. Its new director, Howard Resnikoff, has begun work. I will paraphrase a statement of the information problem that he first mentioned as a member of the committee and has more recently refined. Resnikoff relates his perspective to the work of Thomas Robert Malthus, who, in 1798, wrote his Essay on Population relating to the growth of human and animal populations. 4 Technology I 123 Like people, information is a rapidly growing resource in contrast to almost every other resource on earth. That is, most other resources are diminishing and being used up. Information is not being used up; it is growing. Like people, information must be sheltered and cared for. But sheltering and caring for information in its traditional printed form consume other more scarce and diminishing resources. Moreover, it leads to a Malthusian struggle for existence, analogous to that which affiicts the human population. Darwinian evolution may even play a role in this struggle in that only the fittest information may survive. Clearly, the population pressure of · infor- mation will continue to test the capacity of society to contain it. Zero population growth for information is even less plausible than one can imagine for human zero population growth. So, as Resnikoff puts it, "we find ourselves between the hammer of informa- tion population pressure and the anvil of societal need for information." He goes on to say that "we do not yet know how to do what must be done." Therein lie both the problem and the opportunity to those en- gaged in the information professions. I certainly don't know what the future might hold for our information society. It is almost reckless to predict. But one might imagine a world in which our present librar- ies become information museums, collec- tions for retrospective research and histori- cal significance-a world in which every home, perhaps each person, can be in- strumented with information technology so as to communicate freely with the rest of the world. I feel safe with only one prediction . Whatever the future does hold in the de- velopment of new information technology will, if we remain a free enterprise society, happen almost spontaneously just as it has in the last three decades. No bureaucracy is in control of the basic ingenuity and entre- preneurial spirit that characterize the de- velopment of new technology, thank God. And you are stakeholders. Virtually every- thing that you encounter as professional li- . brarians is affected by this spontaneous and rapid change including the media, the eco- nomics, and the pu·bhc policy of information technology. 124 I College & Research Libraries • March 1979 THE LIBRARIAN'S RESPONSE In conclusion, I suppose that it is fair to suggest how you as librarians might deal both personally and as a profession with the issues that I have raised. I have an idea. It falls into the category of a recycled idea rather than a new one . But it seems to work in its other contexts. I have long been interested in academic programs to train practicing computer pro- fessionals for business and government, cur- ricula that combine in-depth knowledge about computer technology with in-depth knowledge about business and government. At Harvard we have established such a program jointly between the Division of Applied Science (in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and the Harvard Business School. We started admitting students four years ago in groups of eight. We were im- mediately oversubscribed. The experimental program was enormously successful, and it has now become a regular option in the M.B.A. program of the Harvard Business School. It currently engages about ninety students. Also at Harvard , the John F. Kennedy School of Government has a professional program in public administration leading to the M.P.A. The program admits those who have practiced in the public administration area and who plan to return. I teach a course in the Kennedy School called Man- agement Information Systems in Govern- ment that is a part of this program. The course is heavily subscribed. Case material on information technology and its use in government makes an important contribu- tion. For example, one of my cases concerns a computer-based information system in the United States Congress, the House of Rep- resentatives to be specific. Those of you who know the Library of Congress know that the House members often ask for in- formation from the Library of Congress. You would probably safely predict that they will ask more and more and more. In addi- tion, many members of the House have al- ready instrumented their own offices with computer terminals or small computers. And more than one member now employs a computer programmer as legislative aide. In dealing with information technology policy, these members of Congress are not only becoming familiar with the technology through the normal legislative information process but also through personal experi- ence as users. So we can expect a more broadly informed legislative branch both making and questioning information technology policy. I suggest that you review and reconsider your academic programs in library science, including mid-career programs. Demand en- lightened curricula that include basic mate- rial from the information technologies. This includes computer-based system design , de- velopment, management , and use-their complete understanding. Every librarian should be computer- literate-to be able to read and write com- puter programs for a variety of information applications. To avoid doing so will, over time , result in a growing lack of understand- ing for both the new material that you will find in your collection and the computer- lite rate clients who wish to use it . And to avoid doing so is to eventually become a fol- lower and not a leader in our information- centered society. I will end this discus sion , as I began it, with a quotation from Boorstin: We must be willing to believe both that politics is the Art of the Possible and that technology is the Art of the Impossible. Never before has a people been so tempted (an d with such good rea- son) to believe that anything is technologically possible. 5 R EFERE CES 1. Daniel Joseph Boorstin , The R ep ublic of Technology: Reflections on Our Future Com- munity (New York: Harper, 1978), p.xv. 2. Chapter 3 of Boorstin's book is titled " From the Land to the Machine." 3. Kas Kalba, "Libraries in the Information Mar- ketplace," in Libraries in Post-Industrial Soci- ety (Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press , 1977). 4. Howard L. Resnikoff, "Remarks on a National Information Policy, " presented at the Confer- ence on Federal Support of Library and In- formation Services sponsored by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Sci- ence, September 1978. 5. Boorstin , The Republic of Technology, p.34. Italics in original.