"Is It Time to Get Rid of Libraries?" FrontPage Mag / David Greenfield."Despite the general leftward trend of librarians on an organizational level, libraries once served a useful function. Once."
"“The library belongs to everyone,” [Ken] Linge said. “It’s a community living room.”To that end, today’s libraries are “a little less rigid,” he said. “We want to be an inviting and a comfortable place for people to come.”"
See:
"“In the past generation, public libraries have reinvented themselves to become technology hubs in order to help their communities access information in all its new forms,” Kathryn Zickuhr, a research analyst with Pew and a co-author of a report on the survey’s findings, said in a written statement.Pew questioned 2,252 Americans ages 16 and older via cellphones and landlines from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10 last year, in both English and Spanish. More than half of those surveyed said that they wanted more e-book selections in their public libraries, and would be likely to check out e-readers already loaded with books — a significant increase from a survey a year ago."
"If Retro's Cool, Why Isn't the Library Making a Comeback? Capital One wants to know “What’s in your wallet?” It should be a library card. Public and university learning centers are underutilized resources."Two years later, oh yes they are, Mr Bank.
"Libraries are one of the important places left in our society where everybody is equal. Rich or poor, powerful or a nobody, you can have the same access to books and resources as everybody else. They are one of the great levelers of society, where the poor man has exactly the same opportunity for improvement as the rich man. To abolish this democratization of knowledge out of some misguided notion that it is no longer needed in the digital age would wrongly transform books and knowledge into a luxury item, to be purchased by those who can afford them, rather than offered to all who ask for them."
"For years, my experiences fueled my desire to make the reference desk more approachable. There’s considerable research on library anxiety, and many people see libraries as a place with lots of rules they don’t understand. I still believe in the value of making the library more user-friendly, but I don’t think approachability is the only reason why people aren’t using reference services.Like me, many people simply want to figure things out for themselves. And when there’s something about the library they don’t understand, they won’t go to the reference desk. They’ll go elsewhere."
"My library is a remarkable value -- a banquet of books and periodicals, earnest service, and free WiFi. Lately, libraries are playing an unheralded role in the economic recovery by helping people find work and build businesses."
"Books, believes Hernando Guanlao, need to live. And they're only alive if they are being read. Thought and effort, time and money went into making them; they will never repay it lying idle in a cabinet or on a shelf. Books need to be set free. So walk by his home on Balagtas Street in Makati, downtown Manila, and it seems books are pretty much all you'll see. Thousands of them, on shelves and in crates outside on the pavement, piled high in the garage and on the stairs, each one free to anyone who wants it."People can borrow, take home, bring back or keep," says Guanlao, 60, a former tax accountant, ice-cream salesman and government employee known by all as Nanie. "Or they can share and pass on to another. But basically they should just take, take!" Guanlao reckons books "have lives, and have to lead them. They have work to do. And the act of giving a book …it makes you complete. It makes your life meaningful and abundant."
"Libraries are necessary to support these dreams, since they are the public institutions that new Americans and diverse groups rely on the most to support continued education, and English language and technology skills needed to thrive and compete in today's competitive global market."
"As they say in the south, you can't get there from here—you have to find a car, drive out to the research facility, pull on some white cotton gloves, and page through the stuff yourself. No matter how detailed the library's finding aid (a document that lists everything in a particular collection), you may need to leaf through page after page to find whatever you're after. But make sure you're sitting down, because when you find it, the rush can take your head off."
"Your library might be ready for a UX Librarian if:
• it holds regular cross-departmental meetings that people find productive
• people in the organization put ideas before their egos
• the library is ready to research its community
• change isn't a dirty word
• there's a widespread genuine desire to improve the library"
"The occupation has the blessing of many local residents who are delighted to see the locked doors of the library flung open once again. It's the first time that squatters have morphed into "community librarians" by occupying and reopening a public lending resource in this way. Book loans will be manually recorded and stamped.
Council officials have been trying for months to persuade locals enraged by the library closure to become volunteer librarians in a room in a nearby council building instead. The proposal has not been well received: residents want to see their much-loved local library reopened and stalemate has prevailed.
All that changed when the squatters moved in and embarked on unprecedented negotiations with senior council officials about the future of the library.
To everyone's surprise, instead of starting eviction proceedings immediately the council agreed to a series of meetings with the squatters to discuss ways to provide a new volunteer-run library. Senior council officials including the assistant chief executive Julie Taylor were invited to the squatted library on Monday for a meeting with the new occupants who treated them to tea and cakes. Another meeting has been scheduled for next week."Stampin' it to the Man!
