“A library is an information ecology. It is a place with books, magazines, tapes, films, and librarians who can help you find and use them. A library may have computers, as well as story time for two-year-olds and after-school study halls for teens. In a library, access to information for al clients of the library is a core value. This value shapes the policies around which the library is organized, including those relating to technology. A library is a place where people and technology come together in congenial relations, guided by the values of the library. (Information Ecologies, 49)”“Ecology implies continual evolution. The idea of community does not put the same emphasis on change. (Information Ecologies, 56)” 

These two separate passages have made me think if a library really should be called an information ecology. Yes, it’s a “system of people, practices, values, and technologies,” but is it continually evolving? A library has a plethora of tools, technological or otherwise, but is it still being used regularly? A library has lots of great uses, but I think that the Internet has taken the role of a library. Besides story time, you can do everything the library offers online. Libraries are no longer a dominant research source. Students here at Rowan may go to the library for a quiet place to study, but the main way we research is through the Internet. Public libraries are now creating online book borrowing so community members don’t even need to come in. Everything is easily accessible through the World Wide Web. There have been very few instances that I have done research in the library in my four years in college. The Internet is so much more convenient. I feel that libraries are running dry and may not be useful in the years to come. They are depending on different practices in order to remain an establishment. They are creating classes to educate elders on how to use computers and also having to let go of their librarians, because there isn’t enough money. My library at home has cut down their hours of business, because of the low numbers in clientele.  

Should a library be considered an information ecology? Is a library continually evolving or just obligated to change to cater to the technological advances in order to keep their establishment and employees?

“Evolution implies a past, as well as a future. An informative ecology as a persistent structure over time acquires its own history. It displays the stable participation of an interconnecting group of people and their tools and practices. An experience with an ATM machine, for example, is not an information ecology. It is a useful but isolated service that is too simple to be an ecology. By contrast, a bank office is an information ecology with diverse services and activities, where there are interconnections among people and their tools. When we are in a bank, we can sense that the activities, materials, and tools of the trade have a continuing history of development and change.”  (Pg. 53)

            Most of the assigned reading I agreed with however; this portion seemed to influence me the wrong way. The writer first states that an ecology is based on a system that involves people and technologies shared in an environment. (pg. 50) The passage later goes on explaining that an ecology is also filled with tools that people can learn to adapt to. (pg. 53) After reading this portion of the passage, I’m left confused on how the invention of the ATM is not an information ecology. This creation has not always been there to use as a way of withdrawing money or checking account balances. For instance, the use of the ATM is still a process that is being learned for many people. This creation has not always been around and isn’t such a simple service for some people in any local environment. In addition, function of the ATM has changed in time as well. I can remember when I was younger the format of the ATM was a lot slower and almost all of them involved a surcharge for the service. However, technology has changed and advanced the use of the ATM.

Q. Can an information ecology be something simple although most of this generation is already adapted to the tools and services?