The goal of this article was to illuminate in a general way the history of the libraries concerning technology, and it did a reasonably good job at that. At times it seemed just a bit simplistic just because we have read more about certain periods in library history. But, there were several parts of technical history that I had never known about before. The author certainly accomplished what he set out to do, perhaps with a top-heavy approach concerning his very long introduction and statement of purpose compared to what he actually wrote. However, since there were no footnotes it is not clear to me what he actually researched and what he borrowed from other sources, a serious problem to me and probably for any history professor.
Since I work at a library often with WorldCat and online acquisitions and catalog systems, it was very interesting to learn about the history of the actual programs that I use to make the serials department more organized. This article also illuminated the problems of paper cataloging-I had no idea that the card catalog had a large backlog of things to be done constantly, but it would make sense that backlogs created the pressure to computerize in libraries. Paperwork is just not enjoyable for most people.
Also, one thing that struck me about this technology boom in the libraries was the elimination of paper in the process of cataloging to a very large degree. When compared with the energy totals of either paper or web based organization, I wonder which one comes out on top concerning energy use. I imagine that a paper free office or library will never happen because people like tactile contact with information (that concreteness to books I love) but it is still interesting to think about what the future library organization will look like. I think perhaps the consumption part of technology should have been addressed more directly in this work, but one cannot fault a writer for what he did not do.
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