Articles on Library Tech Obsolescence

These are some articles I found about Obsolescence for our discussion.


Librarians and Technology #13: Considering Obsolete Formats and Technologies

by Miriam Kahn, MLS, PhD

JULY 23, 2019

We’ve all got them in our information centers, obsolete formats and equipment lurking in drawers, cabinets, and storage areas. Sometimes the obsolete is taking up “valuable” shelf and storage space. Skills for special librarians include evaluating older formats and technologies. Before you start to discard, you’ll need to identify them and review decision criteria for both retention and removal.


Step Inside The Museum of Obsolete Library Science

October 14, 2020
John Lindaman, Manager of Technical Services, Thomas J. Watson Library

Innovative keyboard

It takes a special kind of confidence to call your company Innovative Interfaces, especially when your innovation seems to be to just take a regular keyboard and make a bunch of the keys not do anything. But this was the dedicated keyboard that came with our first ILS, Anzio, which became Millennium, which is now Sierra. (Now we just use regular keyboards like everyone else. It’s fine.)


These are some pdfs I’ve harvested which seemed relevant at the time. What I find interesting in this is the post-covid viewpoint and the fact that aging is not that long a report. Anyway, worth breezing through, some great ideas from the ALA (American Library Association).


Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.