libraries and evolution teaching

[Chris J. Durden]

  The library! In this fast-media age we have lost reverence for books.
Because of the vast flood of new publications, library shelf space is at a
premium. The solution has been not to shelve unpopular books, much like a
supermarket that will not shelve items that there "is no call for". In many
university libraries a book that is not often checked out is warehoused and
becomes unavailable for shelf browsing. Books that are not cited in others
will not be aked for. This particularly affects older works on taxonomy and
singular publications on unpopular theory. I fear that with warehouse
climate control costs rising there will be disposal of un-needed books to
create room for others. Will collections be next?
  Is this so? Ask a taxonomist with a personal reference and reprint
library, how many of these references are also available in his university
library, or how many times he has to loan his personal copy to students, or
distribute Xeroxed copies. Yes this is relevant to the study of
Lepidoptera. Yes we could digitize images of these books and put them on
the web, but I am afraid ancient works on insect taxonomy and on variant
theories of evolution would come low in the schedule of triage.
.........Chris Durden

At 07:59  17/08/99 -0400, you wrote:
>The library! I forgot about the library. This is the great leveling field on
>competing theories. Even if some published efforts are at a disadvantage,
>enough will get in. Now with internet resources people can access the
>scope of literature beyond that held by their own library (and in the
>case of school libraries that are much smaller this would be important).
>
>If students are taught the basics of scientific enquiry - the ability to
>think critically and ask questions, it really does not matter what theories
>they are presented with in school? Once a student digs into the literature
>beyond the classroom presentation the subject (whatever that may
>be opens up without limits) it is possible to expose oneself to alternatives
>and perhaps make up one's own mind. 
>
>I was taught only the classical natural selection model of evolution at
>school and in the univerisity undergraduate courses, but that did not stop me
>chosing an alternative once I read more widely, and that reading was
>certainly not under the control of a thought police.
>
>
>John Grehan
>
>