SXSW Panel: Why Do We Need Libraries Anyway 

“On June 25, 2007, California recognized the Internet Archive as an official library. As digital resources become a formal part of our civic structure we ask: How are physical and virtual libraries used, what are the emotional connotations of being a library, and what do we do with librarians?

Our perceptions of libraries and librarians are often based in childhood nostalgia or media stereotypes (The Music Man’s Marian the Librarian, Hogwart’s Madam Pince, Noah Wyle’s Flynn Carsen, ‘The Librarian’), but today’s library is as much about bytes as about books. If you would like to join us for a discussion about the future of libraries and information generally in a networked world at the 2008 South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, TX, take a minute and vote for our panel at the SXSW Panel Picker, located at http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/295.

We have tentative commitments from speakers Aaron Schwartz (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/), technical lead for the Internet Archive’s Open Libraries project (http://demo.openlibrary.org/about) and Lorcan Demsey (http://orweblog.oclc.org/), Vice President for Research and Chief Strategist for OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center (http://www.oclc.org/research), home of WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) to offer their thoughts on libraries, both physical and virtual, and on the services that librarians provide. The panel will be moderated by Danielle Cunniff Plumer (http://darchivist.blogspot.com), coordinator of the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and project manager of Texas Heritage Online (http://www.texasheritageonline.org).

The voting process for the 2008 Panel Picker closes at 11:59 pm Central Standard Time on Friday evening, September 21, so please vote soon (although perhaps not often!) at http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/295.”[WEB4LIB]