Page 24 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

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Gerald LEITNER / From gatekeeper to gateway to gate-opener: A new role for the global library field 023

But even then, until the 19th century, the books remained expensive.
Yet it was not just a question of cost. Information, knowledge, learning were also seen as the
preserve of the elite. They were the ones taking the decisions on behalf of others, and so only they
needed the education and the information needed to do this. In contrast, access to information for
the wider population was seen at best as unnecessary, and at worst as harmful.
Those outside of the elite were expected simply to follow orders, rather than taking their own
decisions, expected simply to be hard workers, rather than innovators, than citizens. It followed
that literacy itself was highly restricted, with only the wealthiest given the education necessary
to read and write. As a result, libraries were built, but were for the most part limited to those who
could pay a subscription, or who were affiliated to an institution.
The librarian was not only a guardian, but also a gatekeeper. The one who decided who could
enter, who could access information, at a time when there were precious few other options. And
indeed, in the days of closed stacks, the librarian was also the one who decided what books
someone could read. Whether the request of the researcher could be met or otherwise. The
judgement of the librarian was therefore the deciding factor between access or exclusion. The
library managed the gate.
I should underline—the work of libraries in this phase is not to be dismissed. The intellectual
evolution of our world, our ability to conceive of history, the crossing of ideas and the creation of
new ones is all thanks to libraries. When Newton talked of only being able to see so far because
he was standing on the shoulders of giants, it was libraries that helped him get up there, thanks to
their collections of copies of works by the experts that came before him.
The historical books and manuscripts that we can digitise and put online today are only there
because of the work of librarians of the past. They were—arguably—doing the best they could at
the time, in the conditions in which they worked, and have left us a lot to work with.
But times changed—and we have come to our first transition. Because over the 19th and 20th
centuries there was a growing understanding that by limiting access to information, access to books
to the elite, countries, societies were holding themselves back.
While the first industrial revolution may have been powered by people without education carrying
out repetitive tasks, by the time of the second industrial revolution, it was broadly accepted that
basic literacy was a must. Even though universities remained the preserve of the elites, at least in
the West, there was a powerful drive to ensure that every member of society had at least a primary
education. For some, the reasoning behind this was self-interest. Workers who could read could
follow a manual, understand a shift-pattern, or otherwise become more useful for their employers.
For others, there was a greater care for well-being. Being able to read created possibilities to live a
more fulfilled life, to discover new ideas and experiences. But the result was the same—whole new
possibilities for access to information were opened up. The books, newspapers and pamphlets that
had previously been accessible only to the few could now be read by the many.
In parallel, technological progress brought down the costs of printing, with books themselves