I love libraries and I love information. It was the future of libraries, the next generation of ideas, that drew him. When he began in the field, using a Polaroid camera to copy a book page for the card catalog was cutting-edge library technology. But unlike some librarians who cling to print, Eisenberg, an avid book reader, never had a problem embracing the online world. We don't have to make a choice.
Books are a technology.
He was doing all that as a full professor and directing the huge Information Institute of Syracuse when the UW came calling. In the 1980s, library schools closed all over the country. They had small numbers of graduates, primarily women, who were poorly paid. By 1996, it had reached such a sad state that a Futures Committee, including an outside consultant from Microsoft, convened to decide its fate. Go all out with both.