[Publib] The Demise of the Libraries - Not

[Fred Beisser]

And when you have a chance, take a peek at "The Thriving Library: 
Successful Strategies for Challenging Times"  by Marylaine Block. 
Libraries can be on the cutting edge of making information available and 
well should be. That's what books are and were....now we have new forms 
of information that we manage and make available to the public we serve.

Fred Beisser
Trustee
www.elbertcountylibrary.org (Colorado)

Gareth Osler wrote:

>I was in my local library earlier on today, getting a book out from the
>archives on the subject of that of my favourite Dewey classification number,
>027.4 (Public Libraries), when the librarian said to me, "you know there's
>not a lot down for the libraries nowerdays, things aren't what they used to be".
>
>Rubbish! I say.  OK, things aren't what they used to be - when the libraries
>were founded books were the main means to information and knowledge - but, I
>would argue, the libraries are still just as relevant, we just have to fall
>back on our original purposes and re-examine how we deliver.
>
>The scope of the purpose (role) of the library is broad, the areas of public
>policy that the library operates in many.  McKee[1][2] ventures as the role
>of the public library, "to provide democratic access to the opportunities
>which come from enhanced knowledge--including the knowledge that comes from
>works of the imagination (fiction, poetry, music, etc.) as well as works of
>reason and intellect."  We can expand further... "a clearer sense of what we
>as a civilization, a species, do know and don't know"[3], and so on.
>
>Modernising the service to be just as relevant as ever:
>- The type of service provided by Library Elf[4] will no doubt in several
>years time be standard for a library service.
>- The online presence of a library authority is seen as another library branch.
>- As a library assistant I have access to a Dewey index; to current in print
>(Whitakers, and as an option using a Dewey classification); and also to the
>national bibliography (again using a classification scheme).  These need to
>be made available as options to the public (using computers powerful enough
>for the task).
>- In a computer age need we be restricted to one classification scheme,
>whilst the books have to be shelved in a particular order, would not other
>computerised classifications also be of use, e.g., I'm impressed with the
>coverage that BISAC system[5] gives to fiction (and if booksellers catalogue
>using this system by default then...).
>And so on!
>
>[1] Public Libraries - into the 19090s?, Bob McKee, 1987, AAL Publishing,
>page 63.
>[2] See also this post:
>http://webjunction.org/forums/message.jspa?messageID=43938#43938
>[3] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/05/071105fa_fact_grafton
>[4] http://www.libraryelf.com
>[5] See http://lisnews.org/articles/07/08/30/1949245.shtml
>
>
>Gareth Osler
>Liverpool
>http://www.libraryweb.info
>_______________________________________________
>Publib mailing list
>Publib at webjunction.org
>http://lists.webjunction.org/mailman/listinfo/publib
>
>
>  
>