Lectura e internet: dos tecnologías

Abstract

The paper focuses on reading and writing as two associated technologies that give origin to a fundamental binomial for the development of humanity, and on a much more recent technology: Internet. Thus, an analysis of the technological innovations applied to library science is made, and the opinions that have given birth to the formation of groups with divergent positions are identified. The article centers on two groups: the technologists and the conservatives. The former base their hope on the idea that technology will be the overall solution to library science problems, whereas the latter resist change and over estimate existing means. On the other hand, the technological push has given rise to worries which hold that reading and writing, printed materials, the library and even library science will disappear. However, those specialists who have assumed the displacement of institutions and professionals seem not to have analyzed in depth the conditions that information technologies must fulfill in order to satisfy effectively our information needs. We must not forget that for our technology to operate successfully, man requires dominion of the ancestral techniques of reading and writing.