Tuesday, September 30, 2008

How Quickly It Becomes Routine

I've spent the last week working in the Information Arcade, converting LPs into .WAV files. Which sounds impressive, but really, the computer does all the work. Once you have everything set up correctly (and that can be VERY challenging, and VERY annoying), it's mostly just a matter of putting the record on the turntable, turning it on, lowering the needle, and clicking the RECORD button on the computer. Then you listen through the headphones until it ends, press STOP on the computer, raise the needle and stop the turntable, save your recording, then flip the record over and do it again.

True, it's not just a normal save; you have to "export" the file in a particular format. And you have to make sure that all the options are set correctly. And sometimes an LP is scratched or warped or sticks, and you have to make a note of the problems and set the record aside to be checked by the preservation department.

But mostly you just listen to music while it records.

I'm becoming a fan of the Mirecourt Trio, which was a trio of violin, cello, and piano in residence at Iowa in the 1970s. I've listened to more "new music" (that is, experimental, avant-garde stuff) than I ever wanted to. And I've had fun listening to high school honors choirs and university choirs singing music that I sang when I was in high school and college. (So far, I haven't run across my particular choirs, but it could happen. I did participate in a few events here. I might find a performance I'm in some day.)

And I've had a lot of time to think. In some of my classes, we've been learning about an ongoing debate: is librarianship really a profession? There have been detractors over the ages who claim that library work is basically clerical. The librarians, of course, talk about all the specialized knowledge that is needed to do what we do.

Well, what I'm doing this week would be a vote for the "clerical" side. But setting up the systems to do what I'm doing, and processing and cataloging the resulting files, and designing what the result will look like... that takes higher-level thinking skills.

That's the problem with digital libraries: you can do all sorts of cool things with digital data, but first you have to have the data. And *somebody* has to input it!

It makes sense that professionals (or would-be professionals, like me) have to do some of the inputting, so that they'll know what's involved and be able to supervise the people who do it. But I'm glad I'm not destined to be creating .WAV files for the rest of my life!

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