That big Chock-A-Block wannabe there is EMMARAC, the new computer that's going to revolutionize the reference library of the Federal Broadcasting Network. The librarians looking at this great machine are about to get the pink slips from payroll that indicate their impending redundancy. The entire library has been rendered as machine code and fed into the computer, enabling it to retrieve in seconds an answer that took the woman in the black and red several weeks to ascertain.
This is a still from the 1957 film Desk Set, written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron from a 1955 play by William Marchant. It stars Katherine Hepburn as a librarian (which is kind of like looking in a mirror for me, as you can imagine) and Spencer Tracy as the efficiency expert re(/dis)organising her library and her life. A Kat Hepburn film is seldom a bad thing, and this is no exception to that rule. Indeed, it is rather lovely. It's got Katherine Hepburn and librarians: how can it fail to be rather lovely?
But let us get to the point of this post: The Google Question. It is an assumption among some people out there in the wild (sometimes even people in government) that the library and the librarian have been made redundant by Google. We, of course, know this assumption to be flawed: even ignoring the limited range of Google with respect to the Deep Web; even casting aside the slightly privileged assumption that Google and its fruits are an affordable and available presence in every home; the truth is that Google is only as smart as the person at the keyboard: to get the right answer, one sometimes has to ask the right question.
And this is precisely where EMMARAC fails too. For example, when asked a question about the King of the Watusi, EMMARAC's best effort is a film review of King Solomon's Mines. By way of comparison, Google also resorts to a film as first guess (in this case 1959's Watusi; it's not until the 9th hit that King Solomon's Mines turns up; oh, and Desk Set is the third hit). To get an informed response, one has to know a little bit about what one is typing about. In most day-to-day cases that may be easy enough. For everything else you can call upon your local Information Professional. Google is an amazing tool but getting the best out of it requires knowledge and skill.
Desk Set reaches the same conclusion about EMMARAC. This machine is not a replacement for librarians: it is a shortcut; a new index to consult when required. There will be no redundancies in this reorganization (indeed, a new business venture may, conveniently, even require some extra staff). The panic subsides and everyone lives happily ever after. Or more likely they spend the next fifty-odd years continually reproving their worth as further technological efficiencies are introduced.
Librarians are not, and have never really been, in a war with Google; rather their adversaries in this case are those who think that Google renders librarians obsolete. Here's 103 minutes of half-a-century-old gentle romantic comedy that clearly and relevantly demonstrates the shortcomings of that notion. Not only that, but they have the sort of office parties to which we should all aspire.
Trailer (contains spoilers)
or from your local lending library]
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