"The board and I were so proud of Lodi Library staff. They really went above and beyond, despite the long hours everyone put in. Our staff helped residents apply for FEMA help, seek shelter, arrange transportation, print out directions or just relax by enjoying a family board game and magazines," Barb Hauck-Mah said."
"Public libraries, as with a great deal of libraries, exist in the political world of public institutions. Libraries by this point alone are not neutral. They must participate in the political process for their own survival and well being, & by doing this have destroyed claims of absolute neutrality."
"“Maintaining personal interactions with the public to encourage library use while libraries become increasingly impersonal and digital will be the biggest challenge,” says a specialist with a California-based public library. “Our libraries must plan to focus on being community centers as well as community information centers or we will become obsolete. This will be a huge challenge as budgets decrease and a larger portion of our budgets will need to be spent on new digital applications.”"
"Much of her time now also is spent counseling individuals. The job seekers who come in are often middle-age or older, and many of them don’t know how to use a computer mouse, much less Microsoft Word or Google, she said. A few months ago, one man told her he wanted to apply for a job at Home Depot, but didn’t know how to find the company website, she recalls. Another woman came in clutching a hand-written résumé."
"The rumored death of librarianship caused by the advent of technology has not, and will not, come to pass. In fact, technology has exponentially increased the librarian’s ability to provide library service. The core of library service is organizing, providing access, and guiding others in the use of materials. Material format changes (handwritten scrolls to printed books to ebooks) and methods change, but the core service roles do not. These service roles can be called the organizer, the gatekeeper, and the navigator."
"Within 20 years, perhaps even as few as 10, virtually almost all forms of popular consumable written media will be distributed exclusively in an electronic format. While there are clear advantages to digital media, such as the instantaneous purchase and delivery of that content, elimination of book shortages at bookstores as well as the obvious portability benefits, it has a sociological impact that many have not considered — which is that the “Have Nots” of society may find themselves denied access to an entire range of content they enjoyed previously with the printed book, newspaper or magazine.
What I’m talking about of course is the Public Library. You know, those big, quiet buildings in your town filled with shelves of books, card catalogs, and librarians to help you find that material. In a fully digital society, we won’t need Public Libraries anymore. They won’t be cost effective, and there will be far less new printed books, magazines and newspapers being released to stock these libraries with.
The demise of the Public Library will be a slow one. As printed content becomes more scarce and less people visit the libraries, there will be a culling which will start with library consolidation in towns, counties, major metropolitan areas and states."
"Supported by the taxpayers, libraries are actually monuments to the concept of equal opportunity for all who enter their doors...Both libraries and bookstores are concerned about customer service and satisfaction and are proud of their friendly staff. Excellent customer service in bookstores is expected to create revenue. On the other hand, excellent customer service in public libraries is expected to enrich lives...Libraries provide many things that bookstores cannot, from the personalized research help from trained professionals to programs for the public and a place for minds and souls to grow. Even with the Internet and bookstores, libraries are still thriving and are being used more than ever before. In the past few years, the Paramus Public Library has almost doubled its number of users. Libraries survived the fires at Alexandria, flourished with the help of Carnegie, and now revel in the new age of technology. Librarianship, the fuel for free public libraries, thrives on information, preservation, and circulation of knowledge to all. And it always will."
"Something else to ponder: If people had to pay to use your library, then what would you do to bring them in? Sometimes, simply being free isn't good enough. You also need to be convenient, easy to use, truly welcoming, and worth the time to visit."
"There are 72 million baby boomers, 11,000 Americans turn 50 every day, 4.6 adults turn 65 each minute, and almost 60% of librarians are 45 or older. There is little balance: only 7% of the library work force is age 20-29!"
"In fact, for most Digital Natives, there is no definitive divide between their physical identity and their digital footprint; they coexist as a singular entity. Digital Natives understand that in order to participate and be influential in today’s world, a digital identity can’t be treated as an add-on to life. It’s essential to everything, period."
"...it’s staggering on a scale that is breathtaking. According to Cisco systems, “[b]y 2013 the amount of traffic flowing over the internet annually will reach 667 exabytes” (or 667,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes or 1/3rd of a zetabyte)."
"...from Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist: Data, he explains, are widely available; what is scarce is the ability to extract wisdom from them."