Books, Libraries and Elections, Oh My !

This morning Heidi and Lee, together with neighbor Nancy Saada, set off for Lecture Day at the Mayfield Country Club in South Euclid to attend an Association for Continuing Education event centering on the impact of the Internet on books, libraries and elections.

The two speakers, Panagiotis Takis Metaxas, Professor of Computer Science and Co-Director, Media Arts and Sciences, Wellesley College and Sidney Verba, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Political Science and Director, Emeritus, of the Harvard University Library, had discovered that they shared a common research interest in the effect of the 'Net on election outcomes after having been invited to address the topic of its impact on books and libraries. So the two were melded into a single day's discussion topic - which, in the end, worked out quite nicely.

The first shared session focused on the origins of the Google Books digitization project and on the consequences of technological innovation on the communication process. The most intriguing comment posited a transformation of the role of university libraries (and university presses) into that of "gatekeepers" vetting newly emerging information as to its trustworthiness and validity (thus also serving as an alternative to the profit-making orientation of corporate entities such as Google).

The second session dealt with ways in which propaganda techniques have infiltrated the rankings of Google searches, negatively influencing the availability of reliable information on political candidates and issues before the voter and on the (only slight) impact of the Internet on political participation rates over the economic spectrum (already known to show higher rates among the more affluent and better educated).

Fascinating stuff -- and including a tasty lunch, the opportunity to talk with lots of friends and acquaintances plus a lively Question and Answer session in the early afternoon. Who ever thought the prospect of "LifeLong Learning" was boring has never experienced the offerings of CWRU's ACE programing, that's for sure!