jason the content librarian

I agree with the speaker in the video. “It would be better to steal and not copy”. I think libraries and librarians who imitate and copy what other libraries and librarians are doing could end up like the cargo cult. It is like they would see just the exterior or the results of something and not understand the interior of something of why something works the way it does or the purpose of it. This is like a website. You can copy and paste information from a website on to a word document and not understand the programming language which is the real work that made the website work. But just like the copying and pasting of information from the website onto a word document it would be more effective to copy the programming language and alter the information to suit whatever the user’s purpose is. This is like it would be be the better to steal and not copy scenario. I think imitating what other libraries do could sometimes turn out successful but most of the times there is a risk of failure because there are different types of libraries which serve different purposes. According to the blog “Wholesale implementation of someone else’s plan will often fail in a different institution, as there are complex and incompatible issues of culture, talent, and resources which must be considered” . Just like a business there must be clear understanding of the business functions before any kind of technology or information system is implemented. Libraries should be treated the same way, the dynamics must be first understood and when there is understanding of library activites and functions there will be less copying of library innovation and instead more stealing of principles.