It's well worth it to pursue two degrees at the same time. It takes more time, obviously, but you shouldn't be in such a hurry to graduate anyway. Most universities in the USA allow this. However, I am not certain if it is possible overseas.
You could take both CS and IT, CS and EE, or EE and IT. You would either graduate with the two degrees and have many options for your career or sample both to discover which degree you prefer.
Librarians do have lot of power as gatekeepers of information. However, in trying to find the worst of reasons (censorship), you overlook the most basic of reasons. Librarians are here to help you find information that you need. In a school or univeristy, they are there to help support the curriculum of the school. I am sure there are classes on economics, sociology, or political science at your university. And while Franklin is important in U.S. history, political science, etc., I doubt material on Franklin is referenced with nearly as much need as Marx.
You should try reading the "Library Bill of Rights" and specifically the "Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries" from ala.org. Those should answer your questions about the "tyranny" of filtering by librarians.
And because I have to, I'll comment on the last part of your post. I don't believe his comments are aimed at someone like yourself, who understands the limitations of blogs. I think they're aimed at the people who feel that information is inherently better just because it comes from a blog or Wikipedia as opposed to a scholarly journal or edited volume.
Now, if you'd like to go find blogs yourself, that's fine. But do you expect librarians to spend their time selecting and cataloging blogs for you? And would you feel that is more important that selecting and cataloging scholarly writings, especially in a university setting?
You seem to have some sort of librarians. Ahh, if only everyone feared us like you do! We could finally get salaries that reflect our level of education! And every school in America could actually afford books for their students! And maybe every library, regardless of whether they actually need it or not, would have two cases each for Marx and Ben Franklin.
It's not just about usability; it's also about durability. CD's aren't exactly durable. A library, especially of the magnitude of NLS, has to worry about a lot of factors when developing their collection. The durability of the collection is one of those concerns.
I think it is probably also a consideration for them because of the changing nature of what it is to be blind. More and more blind people rely on technology to live and work. With more people that are blind becoming tech literate, the electronic formats will probably be more desirable as well.
Slashdot Mirror
This fellow has the right idea.
It's well worth it to pursue two degrees at the same time. It takes more time, obviously, but you shouldn't be in such a hurry to graduate anyway. Most universities in the USA allow this. However, I am not certain if it is possible overseas.
You could take both CS and IT, CS and EE, or EE and IT. You would either graduate with the two degrees and have many options for your career or sample both to discover which degree you prefer.
Librarians do have lot of power as gatekeepers of information. However, in trying to find the worst of reasons (censorship), you overlook the most basic of reasons. Librarians are here to help you find information that you need. In a school or univeristy, they are there to help support the curriculum of the school. I am sure there are classes on economics, sociology, or political science at your university. And while Franklin is important in U.S. history, political science, etc., I doubt material on Franklin is referenced with nearly as much need as Marx.
You should try reading the "Library Bill of Rights" and specifically the "Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries" from ala.org. Those should answer your questions about the "tyranny" of filtering by librarians.
And because I have to, I'll comment on the last part of your post. I don't believe his comments are aimed at someone like yourself, who understands the limitations of blogs. I think they're aimed at the people who feel that information is inherently better just because it comes from a blog or Wikipedia as opposed to a scholarly journal or edited volume.
Now, if you'd like to go find blogs yourself, that's fine. But do you expect librarians to spend their time selecting and cataloging blogs for you? And would you feel that is more important that selecting and cataloging scholarly writings, especially in a university setting?
You seem to have some sort of librarians. Ahh, if only everyone feared us like you do! We could finally get salaries that reflect our level of education! And every school in America could actually afford books for their students! And maybe every library, regardless of whether they actually need it or not, would have two cases each for Marx and Ben Franklin.
It's not just about usability; it's also about durability. CD's aren't exactly durable. A library, especially of the magnitude of NLS, has to worry about a lot of factors when developing their collection. The durability of the collection is one of those concerns. I think it is probably also a consideration for them because of the changing nature of what it is to be blind. More and more blind people rely on technology to live and work. With more people that are blind becoming tech literate, the electronic formats will probably be more desirable as well.