Bonnie Nardi - Nardi and Library Science

Nardi and Library Science

In her book, Information Ecologies (Nardi & O’Day 1999) Nardi passionately argues that “Human expertise, judgment and creativity can be supported, but not replaced by computer-based tools.” She argues that we can not, either with technophilia or technophobia, view technological change as “inevitable.” Rather, she challenges us to be critical users of technology who actively engage in conversation on the social impacts of technology. We must then, guided by our moral values influence society’s institutions, libraries for example, to adopt responsible technology use.

While all of this has clear application to the Information Science field, one can also look to Bonnie Nardi for her explicit praise of librarians. In a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, her writings clearly spell two words for librarians—job security. As a designer of software herself, she has asked the question, “Could an “intelligent software agent” replace librarians?” and decisively responded, “No.”

In Information Ecologies she clearly labels librarians a “keystone species.” In biological terms, a keystone species is one that is critical to the survival of an ecosystem. To follow the analogy, a librarian is indispensable in the information ecosystem. While information is increasingly available via digital resources, librarians are irreplaceable in their ability to speak the language of search systems and then to retrieve that information.

She further praises librarians beyond their understanding of the necessary language to produce desired search results. Rather, it is the imperceptible skill of a librarian, via the reference interview, to guide the researcher to exactly what they want in. It is through a dialog of clarifying questions and restatement of assumptions that librarian and patron develop a strategy to meet the patron’s need and produce the best results.

Through experience, librarians also think of sources patrons may have overlooked, know of additional print/online sources and have the ability to connect patrons with otherwise proprietary information. Unlike computers, librarians develop a rapport with their patrons, enabling them to cater searches to the needs and search style they already expect from the patron. They even have the omniscience to recognize “false drops” and the ingenuity to renegotiate searches with updated/outdated language based on the style of a database. In essence, a librarian is the intercessor “with heart” between the patron and the information—someone who actually cares and wants to help patrons meet their objective.