Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Initial Thoughts on The World is Flat

After getting only a few chapters into The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, I find myself apprehensive but also excited.  Friedman has already explored several ways in which jobs and tasks can be outsourced to other countries like India and China, and every time he cites an aspect of a job that can and is easily outsourced, I keep thinking "okay, time to start talking about libraries... which part of my job will I lose? All of it? Some of it? What will that mean?" I have a couple things that I've thought of already that could be easily outsourced in a public library setting (program registration, cataloging, etc.) but can anyone else think of other aspects of the library profession that could be outsourced? And how is this going to change the dynamic and structure of the library as a physical space? I imagine outsourcing would implement some drastic changes, but I'm curious to find out what other people think that might look like!

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