Brave New World: A.I. (After Internet) by Michelle Anderson

I received an email reference request, asking for “optimistic” novels for Year 13 extension English. Year 13 was called 7th form in my day, so I thought about what I’d read then to see if it was useful. We studied George Orwell’s 1984 (because it was 1984) and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Neither had very optimistic characters, but I have been thinking about those books a bit this week.

I occasionally use a management technique inspired by Orwell’s 1984. It’s something not found in management courses, and it’s a bit debateable how ethical it is, but it works. I might write about it one day. But mostly this week I thought about Brave New World. I’ve never reread it, but a few parts of the plot stick in my mind. Set in an imagined future, a female character feels it’s such a chore to be promiscuous, as is the norm. (Anything about sex sticks in your mind when you’re 17). The characters go to the “the feelies” – like the movies, but they can feel what the characters feel on screen.  But most interestingly, the bit I remember is that this new society had a different way of recording centuries. We say B.C – before Christ – and A.D – Anno Domini, effectively after the birth of Christ – to measure time.  Or more multiculturally correct, we say BCE – Before Common Era – and CE – Common Era. But in Brave New World, the time was A.F. – After Ford. After Henry Ford, whose mass production brought us into ‘modern’ times.

As a children’s librarian, I could measure my library life B.I. and A.I. – Before and After Internet. This week I’ve been withdrawing reference books that are no longer as relevent A.I. For example The Statesman’s Yearbook – all that information I – or my customers – can find on the internet. 3000 years of sequels – better cataloguing means I can find the order of a series using our Library Management System, or I can use the author’s website. Junior Genreflecting – again better cataloguing means I can find dragon picture books, or dragon books for teens or children – they’re not all lumped together under that horrible term Juvenile Fiction. But if I want “Books like Cherub/Zac Power/Jacqueline Wilson” I can just google that question – a library somewhere in the English speaking world will have a booklist called just that on their website.

The Internet has totally changed our reference queries too. B.I, about 1/3 of my queries in Children’s and Teenagers’ Services (Ca TS) would have been homework queries, or study related.  “I’m doing a project on whales/robots/space” (or more likely “my CHILD is doing a project on…”) These queries still happen, but so much less now, A.I. This month, instead of just recording the number of reference enquiries we receive, Ca TS staff have recorded the TYPE of query. So far, about 70% are “do you have this book?” – patron knows the title or author, just not where or how to look. About 15% are Reader Advisory “Can you help me find an adventure story?” and about 15% are Reference – homework queries, teachers gathering resources, parents trying to teach manners or time to their kids. For most children and teens, their first port of call for study related information is the internet.

A.I. has seen a change in children’s non-fiction borrowing, and as a result, non-fiction purchasing.  When I first started buying children’s non-fiction B.I. it was mostly curriculum related, because I was dealing with so many homework and study related questions.  What’s happening now? Well, this month we are also tallying what type of Children’s non-fiction is on the returns trolley. Not a particularly sophisticated method, but quite telling about what is issued. So far into our scientific study, about 2/3s of returned items are recreational non-fiction – drawing, cooking, Star Wars, the Horrible Histories series. The other third is study related.  Children are still reading, and they are still learning from non-fiction – it’s just that they’re reading books more for their own interests.

B.I. my career was more certain, I could see a long future as a librarian. A.I, I’m not so sure. We’re awaiting the Brave New World of e-books, of downloading our reading onto an electronic device via the internet.  An end to the shelving, that’s for sure! I can’t predict when this will happen, but then I’m still waiting for “the feelies”, so who knows what the future holds!

by Michelle Anderson (2011).