The issue of finding the manpower, time and resources to catalog documents was brought up in the readings as a hurdle to overcome. A solution to cataloging the influx of data may not be found in librarians, or other professionals, but instead in gamers and voluntary user collaboration. Take the GWAP/ESP game, pet project of computer scientist Luis von Ahn, a simple multiplayer experience in which players have to describe an image using metadata (descriptors) while also matching what the other player picks. This game is behind the recent vast improvement in Google Image Search queries (which, as you may have noticed, now allows you to do all sorts of advanced searches), as the logoi derived from the game play has been imported into the search engine. The task of cataloging millions of images based on verbose descriptors would have proved impossible for a professional team, not to mention economically impractical. Yet, give the users of the internet a fun game where they have to guess what other people are thinking in describing an image, and you can catalog vast amounts of information for free.

Herein I think lies the most compelling prospects for integrating new technologies into libraries. As the digital age has brought an influx of new information to bear, a colossal task for small groups of professional librarians to manage and catalog, we must create a forum or capacity for visitors to join a community and engage in a collaborative work at the benefit of our objectives. This may only be implemented by posing some fundamental questions about the nature, function and “good” of libraries. We cannot envision what technologies to create or adopt if we are mute to the ultimate overarching goals of our enterprise. This might sound as a pedantic point, but under close scrutiny I do not believe that it is when considering the vast wealth of technological resources. As public funding dwindles under economic woes, we must have the wisdom and foresight to pick our projects carefully. Essentially, as another poster put it, what is the central mission of the library?

I believe that Wikipedia represents the most exemplary case. Therein we have an institution, staffed completely by volunteers through love of knowledge, who quest to offer the sum of all human knowledge for free. Wikipedia bridges the old school of library (the collection of knowledge) with the new school of technology (collaborative creation). This I believe is key if libraries hope to exist. They must become universal, digitized and creative; creative in the sense that they are bastions of creation. Librarians might serve as professional guides to perceiving and searching for knowledge, a service which Wikipedia cannot offer. We must act as Plato’s guardians, Dante’s Virgil, ensuring the spiritual wellbeing of the visitor as they trudge through the sometimes intimidating and dangerous morass of knowledge. We are the conduits for technology to be used ethically and effectively, and guides for the ignorant to learn in a safe and reliable fashion. If we do not adapt more specifically to this role, I believe that our days are numbered, as within a decade’s time we will offer nothing that services like Wikipedia, Google Scholar, Google Books, Project Gutenberg, Librivox etc do not already.