[Publib] On using libraries....

[Fred Beisser]

I thought you might like to see these two letters to the editor that 
appeared in today's Wall Street Journal

Fred


>   Libraries Are Physical, Electronic Gateways for Democracy's Citizens
>
> The "Moving On" column "Of the Places You'll Go, Is the Library Still 
> One of Them? 
> <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117391084682537392.html?mod=article-outset-box>" 
> (Personal Journal, March 15) confuses the product and the delivery 
> system. The need and desire for free access to information is as 
> sought after now as it was in Andrew Carnegie's day. The channels by 
> which information is delivered have expanded greatly beyond the 
> printed page. By adopting modern technologies, including 
> information-rich Web sites, subscription databases, online-help 
> centers, CDs and DVDs, libraries are serving a broader constituency 
> and providing greater access.
>
> Libraries are both physical and electronic gateways for all citizens 
> in a democracy. They are of particular value where high-speed Internet 
> access creates yet another divide between the haves and have-nots. 
> Every day, thousands of people use their public-library computers to 
> look and apply for jobs, research and apply to colleges, connect with 
> loved ones faraway and research health issues. The expertise of 
> librarians coupled with the Internet is an incredibly powerful 
> resource. A recent study in Pittsburgh indicated that the public 
> library was considered the most valuable resource for information on 
> medical problems.
>
> Libraries also provide the only safe place for many children to spend 
> time after school, social interaction for seniors, foreign-language 
> books and journals for those who don't speak English and meeting space 
> for thousands of community groups. Chess clubs, investment clubs, 
> neighborhood associations, reading groups and just about any kind of 
> group that convenes can do so for little or no cost at public libraries.
>
> Carnegie's vision of providing information "Free to the People" is as 
> relevant today as it was 100 years ago. I applaud reporter Jeffrey 
> Zaslow's support of his local library's building campaign and 
> encourage others to recognize the valuable contribution that libraries 
> make to our communities.
>
> Carol Robinson
> Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
> Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
> Pittsburgh
>


> The day the card catalog disappeared from my library was a sad one for 
> me. No longer could my fingers flit through the index cards and easily 
> find subjects and categories, so logically arranged in alphabetical 
> order. Now I would have to find the correct words to key into the 
> computer in order to elicit the increasingly elusive answers to my 
> queries. This was a frustrating task, to say the least.
>
> As a confirmed library-goer, I still feel guilty about going to the 
> mega-bookstore, reading all of the magazines I want, researching any 
> number of subjects and walking out without buying anything. This 
> mentality allows people to keep the tags on new clothes, wear them and 
> then return them to the store. While my husband and daughter look for 
> books to buy, I write down titles I'll borrow from the library. If 
> bookstores forbade such indiscriminate browsing without paying, they'd 
> make more money, and people would consider borrowing from their 
> libraries again.
>
> Christine Tosun
> Chicago
>
______________________________

And the March 15, 2007, article was this one:

>
>   Of the Places You'll Go,
>   Is the Library Still One of Them?
>   March 15, 2007; Page D1
>
> In 1998, a new library was built near my home in suburban Detroit. To 
> raise funds, the library sold bricks for the entrance walkway for $100 
> each, and my wife and I bought one.
>
> [Move On]
>
> Our inscription on the brick was a Dr. Seuss homage -- and a message 
> to our daughters, then ages 9, 7 and 3: "Jordan, Alex and Eden, 
> too/The places you'll go start here for you."
>
> We hoped our girls would see the library as an oasis where they'd 
> learn to understand themselves and the world. But truth is, like many 
> computer-obsessed kids, my daughters don't visit the library as often 
> as we had hoped. They usually turn to Google if they want to research 
> something.
>
> For parents and grandparents, it's hard to accept that young people 
> today often feel little connection to the local library. We recall the 
> libraries of our childhoods as magical places; getting our first 
> library card was a rite of passage. It saddens us that younger 
> generations seem more eager to buy books than borrow them, or that 
> they consider libraries just another tool for acquiring information.
>
> "The library is more removed from their lives," says Sabra Steinsiek, 
> a retired librarian in Albuquerque, N.M. "It's a last-ditch place to 
> go if they need to find something out."
>
> Sure, there are still library-loving children, but books aren't 
> necessarily the draw. Many gravitate to the rows of computer 
> terminals. And libraries are offering more children's materials and 
> programs than ever, with attendance growing at events such as story 
> hours, ice-cream socials and movie nights. Suburban kids, especially, 
> often use libraries more for DVDs, story hours and computers, because 
> their parents buy them books, according to a 2005 study by the 
> Association for Library Service to Children.
>
> Recognizing that today's kids like to "own stuff," Stephanie Bange, a 
> librarian in Dayton, Ohio, says she tells kids to "come to the library 
> and try out a book. If you like the fit, then go to the bookstore and 
> buy it."
>
> Many kids, of course, skip the library and head right for the store. 
> Sales of hardcover juvenile books rose 60% from 2002 to 2005, to $3.6 
> billion. Yes, that's an encouraging sign that kids still value books. 
> But today, they own books in part because of society's "insatiability" 
> for material things, says Mel Levine, a pediatrics professor at the 
> University of North Carolina Medical School.
>
> Meanwhile, with most teens turning first and foremost to the Internet 
> for schoolwork, students are arriving in college unable to navigate 
> libraries. At Minnesota State University Moorhead, 
> collection-management librarian Larry Schwartz finds himself 
> explaining to students that books are shelved by call numbers. 
> "There's concern in Libraryland about how we should serve these people 
> who grew up with computers," he says.
>
> Matthew Kessler, a student I know at Western Michigan University, 
> proudly avoids the school library. Given all the books and magazines 
> it houses, "that place is a firetrap. I don't go in there," he says, 
> only half-jokingly.
>
> Young people argue that some of their elders rely too heavily on 
> libraries. Elly Gilchrist, 22, works at the library in Birmingham, 
> Mich., and she fields questions from older folks that they could 
> answer online in seconds. "We're like their Google," she says.
>
> It's true that older Internet-phobes are missing out on an incredible 
> tool. But many tech-savvy kids never experience the library as a place 
> for serendipitous discovery. "The library is about delayed 
> gratification," says Dr. Levine. "It's about browsing through shelves 
> of biographies. 'Do I want Jackie Robinson? Franklin Roosevelt? What 
> will I do when I grow up?' The library slows you down and makes you 
> think."
>
> Today [3/15], in West Bloomfield, Mich., 50 first-graders from Lone 
> Pine Elementary are scheduled to visit the library and get their first 
> library cards. I interviewed some of the students last week about the 
> books, videos and computer games they hoped to find at the library.
>
> One precocious first-grader, Elias Khoury, warned his classmates: "The 
> computer is mostly mind-numbing. If you waste time on the computer, 
> you won't find any good books." I had to smile. Give that kid a 
> library card, I thought, and he'll go places.
>
> . Email: Jeffrey.Zaslow at wsj.com <mailto:Jeffrey.Zaslow at wsj.com>


-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/related