Featured, On Campus - by Kenneth Hsu on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 8:00 - 10 Comments - 551 views
The WSN reported yesterday that the city of Abu Dhabi will fully finance a large-scale digitization of Bobst Library, allowing students studying in Abu Dhabi and other sites abroad to view materials held at our collective home on Washington Square South. Although the Abu Dhabi government apparently hopes for a digitization of all Bobst holdings — 5.1 million volumes, according to the WSN — no other university has completely digitized their libraries. (Ed Note: Entire Bobst collection will not be digitized. See update.)
Unless you happen to enjoy stressful nights buried in LL2, this is pretty awesome. Accessing assigned reading that has been collecting dust on the 10th floor for decades… on my laptop… in another country? Maybe I’m just a huge geek (I am), but I just got a bit sexually aroused.
Of course, professors and education purists should love the concept of digitization too. Reaching a goal of accessing and utilizing actual texts, as opposed to the more conventional Wikipedia, will be more practical when those resources are at your fingertips.
Still, the WSN Editorial team, which also discussed the news yesterday, is a bit hesitant to agree:
“Some of us think the funding for this project brings into question the autonomy of the Washington Square campus. We wonder if the emirate will feel a sense of entitlement. We also think Abu Dhabi may be overstepping its boundaries; it’s almost like we are giving away a bit of control of Bobst to Abu Dhabi. What happens if relations between the two campuses sour?”
And later in the editorial:
“Bobst’s digitization is obviously good. But will it someday lead to Abu Dhabi exerting even more influence on Washington Square?”
Unless there’s some other exchange I’m completely missing, these fears are completely melodramatic. I find it difficult to believe that potentially difficult relations in Abu Dhabi will endanger our library at Washington Square and NYU’s own online content (”I beg you, Sheikh Issa! Don’t burn those printed handouts of that chapter. My professor just put it on reserve!”).
For NYU students today, it’s easy to distrust J-Sex and our administration, especially in its relations abroad. But let’s not ignore — or worse, discourage — the “obviously good” moves that would benefit NYU students studying across the globe. Digitization would probably even help students studying inside Bobst. Hell, it might even ease @NYUBobstLibrary ’s self-esteem issues.
Risky? Not so much. Awesome? Enough to be aroused.
10 Comments
John Lempka
I know this isn’t necessarily microfilming, and the goal of this isn’t to save space per se, but there are some ethical issues relating to digitizing libraries that aren’t entirely technophobic. Specifically, if NYU digitizes volumes upon volumes of Bobst (in an effort underwritten by the government of Abu Dhabi, nonetheless!), what is keeping it from taking the logical next step of discarding the physical copies of said volumes?
To clarify: (a) There may be something keeping NYU from doing so (I actually have no idea!), and (b) Regardless, I kind of think the above conspiracy theorizing is just that. But these issues don’t necessarily boil down to sentimental attachments to paper versus The Future.
A much more informed (if completely biased) take on this is Nicholson Baker’s “Double Fold”, which is itself available at Bobst.
I don’t really think that digitizing a library’s collection has to lead to discarding physical copies. Then what would NYU do with the Bobst building?
While it might seem suspicious, I highly doubt that anything will come of this other than what you’ve described here — the very cool and convenient ability to access Bobst materials, from anywhere, on your laptop. While Abu Dhabi may not have the best human rights record, it’s not a stupid government and they know that if they were to get into a power struggle with NYU, NYU would pull out and that would make Abu Dhabi look very, very bad. Abu Dhabi getting an NYU campus is more about publicity than it is about education, and they know it. My guess, as someone who has lived in the GCC, is that Abu Dhabi will pretty much do anything to keep NYU happy as long as they stay. The digitization of Bobst is for very practical reasons. And if they have the money to finance it, why not? It’s certainly technologically possible, so I say they might as well make it happen.
WSN is getting anxious about nothing, IMO.
Yeah, I think this fear of discarding the physical copies assumes that NYU won’t see the value in maintaining a large physical library. But physical books have obvious value. I think it’s fair to say that most people–myself included–still prefer real, physical books.
On the other hand, making the information in those books easier to preserve and access from anywhere on Earth is an unambiguous good.
Phillip Klugman
After all the books are digital, NYU if going to take the recently emptied building and turn it into Bobst Boy Residence Hall, working to offset the displaced freshman they have every year.
Update: Abu Dhabi to Fund Partial Bobst Digitization | NYU Local
[...] the bright side, maybe people will stop being so paranoid about the far-fetched potential for Abu Dhabi to exert control over our New York Campus now. Just [...]
John Lempka
@ Josh, Ned: I don’t actually think that is part of NYU’s plan, either. (But large-scale destruction of the physical versions of digitized materials is not unheard of. The amount of shelf space in Bobst is relatively constant, but new books are printed every day.) Also: in the past, digitization has not always been a benign process for books to go through. Which is to say, I think it’s fair to be to some extent skeptical about all this.
In other news, the correction to this article contained an absolute smackdown from my employer (LJ) to the WSN. WORLDS COLLIDING. I guess digitizing half the library isn’t as sexually arousing as digitizing the whole thing but I still like the sentiment.
@John: I still don’t follow. What exactly should we be skeptical about, in regards to digitization?
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I too am sexually aroused by this, Kenny, but kind of in a dirty way, like when you know the person you’re making out with is hot but he has an IQ of like 1, and you’re all like “woo” but also “ugh.” In this case the digitization is the hot guy and the fact that a government as corrupt as Abu Dhabi is the low IQ score. Basically what I’m trying to say is digitization = hot! It being financed by a country with vast human rights concerns = not hot.