Re: [InetBib] OT: Grafsche Provokationen

[Lars Aronsson <lars@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Raimar Eberhard wrote:
> Nun ja, das Problem ist in meinen Augen wohl der Umgangston.

The problem is that Klaus writes what he thinks.  And he thinks 
that digitization projects are very important.  In reality it 
turns out that they are not so important.  Libraries have many 
tasks, and digitization are among the least important.  Providing 
a cafeteria area or selling souvenirs to visitors is far more 
important.  Germany has 82 million inhabitants (says Wikipedia).  
How many of them earn their living from working in digitization 
projects?  Maybe more than 82, but probably fewer than 820.
How many work in a library cafeteria?  Probably more than 820.
Does anybody know the real numbers?

If a library, such as Die Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt, had to 
chose between closing down its (non-existent) activities in 
digitization or closing down its restaurant, I think the 
restaurant would stay.  Guide Michelin would never send a reviewer 
to this restaurant, since there are so many better restaurants in 
the Frankfurt area.  The DDB restaurant must be called a joke by 
all standards.  And still, it is more important than digitization. 
That shows how unimportant digitization projects are today.

If we had an interest group for digitization, something similar to 
the SuMa-eV, then we could keep count of how many people are 
involved and how many digitized books have been made available, 
and we could celebrate milestones for when digitization becomes 
more important than writing Festschrifts for retired librarians 
(2010?) or more important than library cafeterias (2015?).


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars@xxxxxxxxxxx)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se