Convergence of LAMS

Libraries, archives, and museums have more in common than one would think.  Each of these institutions has four essential similarities which compose their core mission.  All three gather information, organize the information collected, encourage research and, above all, promote the quest for knowledge.

Libraries are the original “storehouse” for all different types of information.  Traditionally, the goal of any library has been to collect, or rather, to build collections centered on literary works or texts (i.e. books, journals, newspapers, etc.).   Moreover, these texts are usually not unique although some libraries do contain unusual or older texts which are rare or one-of-a-kind.  Librarians are typically concerned with providing informational resources to the masses so that individuals will acquire the skills to educate themselves.  In the past, librarians have been primarily concerned with building physical resource collections. However, with the advent of the Digital Revolution, librarians have shifted their position from “Collectors” to “Data Curators”.   This shift is interesting from an intellectual perspective because, traditionally, archivists have dealt with the management of data.

In contrast to libraries, archives and, by extension, archivists have traditionally been concerned with preserving the records of selected individuals or institutions.  Archives collect information that is specific and usually unique to their specific institution’s mission which usually concerns a particular individual, topic, or institution. In addition archivists are generally not attempting to preserve every record they find which is pertinent to their topic of interest.  In fact, the essential goal of the archivist is to decide what records should be cast aside.  However, currently there seems to be a convergence between libraries and archives with regard to data curation.  Librarians are no longer concerned with merely building collections but rather with managing the information that they collect.  Since libraries are now focusing on information management, the question is whether they will replace or simply merge with archives.  This is something interesting to ponder.

Although, libraries and archives appear to be converging with regard to data curation, I seriously doubt that these two valuable institutions will ever entirely become extinct.  There will always be a difference between libraries and archives because their missions are entirely separate from each other.  Yet, that doesn't mean that these institutions are not subject to change.  The Digital Revolution is changing the ways people perceive and organize data and those institutions that don't adapt run the risk of becoming extinct.  However, change need not always be a major undertaking.  In fact I would go so far as to say that the degree to which institutions have to change and adjust to change really depends on their mission, i.e., the goals they are trying to achieve. 

In regards to the similarities between museums, archives, and libraries, museums are distinctive because they possess features of both archives and libraries while simultaneously being different insofar as they collect material artifacts which are often both informative and rare or unique.  Museums do collect information, or rather material evidence which provides information, as do libraries.  Yet, by the same token, they also preserve what they collect like archives.  Museums are subject to change, but in a different way from libraries and archives because they deal with an entirely different form of information.  Whereas libraries and archives are specifically concerned with collecting data in particular formats (usually written texts), museums are examining data on a much broader scale the scope of which is the nature of culture itself.  People visit museums for entertainment as well as for scholarly pursuits.  I have always associated museums with “science fiction”, in the sense that, in many museums, one is often transported to another time that has long since passed or yet to come to observe the past or imagine the future.  There are, of course, many different types of museums and not all of them deal with culture or the past (e.g., the Boston Science Museum).  Yet, despite their differences, there are two underlying themes which are apparent in all museums: education and exploration.  Since the idea of going to a museum for educational reasons seems obvious, I will confine my discussion of change in a museum to exploration because that is where I see opportunities for improvement. 

In museums, "change" coincides with exploration because, in contrast to libraries and archives, the question is not how to revise standard practices but, rather, where we (i.e., museums as institutions) are going.  Librarians and archivists must change their practices to adapt to the times.  Librarians are rapidly going from being collectors of texts to being digital curators while, for archivists, the materials with which they are dealing are changing from physical objects to digital objects.  However, museums and, by extension, museum professionals, are concerned with continually novel kinds of exploration as new types of subjects of study are invented and new types of material culture are created.  Through the continuing exploration of museum contents and the designing of new exhibits, new interpretations of science and culture are continually discovered.  Museums do not curate culture or science as much as they define and help to create them.

Therefore, with regards to the future of LAMS, all I have say is that I view the “Convergence Phenomena” as a scale measuring the degree to which each of these institutions have adapted to the times and changed their missions to do so.  On this hypothetical scale, libraries have changed the most because their mission now includes curating information in addition to storing it.  Archives have adjusted to managing digital data as paper documents are becoming increasingly redundant and have altered their mission to include managing the digital data life cycle.  Finally, although museums now include digital access to their collections, they continue to collect material artifacts and to curate material culture to encourage intellectual exploration.  In this sense, they haven’t changed at all.