Herring, Mark Y. Fools Gold: Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library.Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2007. 191p. alk. paper, $45 (ISBN 0786430826). LC 2007-13548.
This book is based on Mark Herring’s article "10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library" that originally appeared in the April 2001 issue of American Libraries. Written to counter any ideas that "nonlibrarian bean counters" might entertain about replacing libraries with Internet services, Herring’s article was well received and was reprinted in various languages. Based on this acclaim, Herring was asked to expand his ideas into a monograph, and the result is this volume.
Presented in a conversational, informal tone that displays Herring’s vast vocabulary, the narrative makes the case that the Internet is "a fine accessory to libraries" but not an ersatz library in and of itself. Yet it’s not just the relationship between online options and brick and mortar libraries that propelled Herring to write: a larger cultural context underlies his concerns about the "perilous times libraries are in today." He takes this broader context very seriously: in his original 2001 article he even claimed that he was trying to "save our culture," no less. In this vein he laments the poor state of public education in America while worrying that America is becoming a country that no longer values reading books, stating that the act of reading is "at the core of the culture of libraries." While he doesn’t see the Internet as the cause of these woes, he does fear that many see the ’Net as a potential cure, "a magic pill to cure all of our diseases."
Over the course of nine chapters, Herring examines such topics as the overwhelming amount of misinformation and disinformation on the Web, some of the problems with fraud and abuse in Web-based commerce, difficulties with search engine reliability and accuracy, and the nature and threat of "link rot" and its implications for bibliographic accuracy in online subscription journals. He also offers observations on why electronic books aren’t the same as print books, provides a general overview and debunking of the myth of the "paperless society," and devotes an entire chapter to the various problems associated with Google books and other massive book digitization projects, and in the clever fashion that permeates this book, titles the chapter "Google Über Alles." Many of the topics he covers won’t be news to many librarians, but rehash familiar territory.
Herring is particularly upset with how easy it is to access pornography on the Web, making the interesting claim that "no one who has used the Web for more than ten minutes can doubt that Web porn is readily available." He does not provide any documentation for this assertion—he just states it as fact, assuming, it seems, that surfing the Web for at least ten minutes will lead to an encounter with online pornography. He attacks what he calls the American Library Association’s "defense of pornography," referring to the ALA "First Amendment absolutists." He strongly advocates Internet filtering, calling on the ALA to "express its contempt, if it has any, for smutographers by calling for the filtering in every library, not just public ones, and not just in children’s areas. Such an act would go a long way to exhibit its concern for the enormity that is pornography, whatever the kind."
The effectiveness of Herring’s arguments are weakened by a number of sweeping, unsubstantiated assertions. In a discussion about electronic books and printing, he claims that "no one reads more than three or four pages on the Web at a time anyway" without providing any documentation to support his claim. No one reads more than three or four pages? An informal survey of the undergraduates in my library quickly put this notion to rest. In a discussion on online commerce, he states as inevitable "the sad conclusion is that if one chooses to use the Web as his or her preferred means of doing business, he or she will eventually become a victim of Internet fraud of some kind," as if this were some law of economics.
Herring’s conservative viewpoint dominates these pages, and he often states his opinions as fact. "Democratic capitalism has proven to everyone (save a few political science professors working at American universities) to be the best form of economic government," he asserts with certainty. He uses the term "First Amendment absolutists" with nothing less than disdain, and pretty much equates anyone who is against Internet filtering as being pro-pornography. By his own admission, Herring is a cultural warrior, and at times this book feels far more like an extended, clever rant intended to rally the faithful and alienate the opposition. As such, it reads like more like a guest editorial on Fox News or an op-ed piece in The Washington Times than a solid work of scholarship.—Gene Hyde, Radford University.