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What do people think about the future of libraries? I brought my baby daughter to our local library yesterday for the first time. I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't exactly impressed with the children's area.
The interactive toys (safe for under 3) were broken and dangerous. Everything was absolutely filthy too, with dust, hair and just dirt on the book shelves, small tables, etc. The books were in such shabby condition. A few of the books that we were looking at were all taped up.
There were a few older people there but overall it was empty except for the 10 plus employees. There were so many people working there that there may have been more employees than visitors.
I'm all about putting $$ into reading, education, etc. However, things are changing in how we access the written word. I don't know how libraries are going to be able to continue with outdated services, old/shabby books, etc.
They're on the verge of becoming extinct. Everything is online and you can access the internet from everything such as computers, to phones, to ipads, to mp3 players, even tv's have wi-fi. When I was a kid in the 80's-90's I had to go to the library, pull up an encyclopedia just to do my science project, those days are over.
Just like newspapers, it won't be long before they're all closed. School Librarians are also losing their jobs and relevance, as kids simply don't need libraries to do research anymore.
We had 2 in Montclair, the little one closed up because of funding, but a few residents complained and protested until the board finally let them reopen it as volunteers. That won't last long.
They're on the verge of becoming extinct. Everything is online and you can access the internet from everything such as computers, to phones, to ipads, to mp3 players, even tv's have wi-fi. When I was a kid in the 80's-90's I had to go to the library, pull up an encyclopedia just to do my science project, those days are over.
Just like newspapers, it won't be long before they're all closed. School Librarians are also losing their jobs and relevance, as kids simply don't need libraries to do research anymore.
We had 2 in Montclair, the little one closed up because of funding, but a few residents complained and protested until the board finally let them reopen it as volunteers. That won't last long.
It is sad to think of them all closing, as I like the community aspect of libraries.
My last year of college, 1999-2000, I remember starting to do all my research online as everything on the shelves related to sociology was completely outdated. Before that, I remember going through microfiche on the old machines! Wow.. do they still have those?
I do not know about microfiche, but microfilms are still used here in many Bergen County Libraries. I went looking through old copies of the Bergen Record to further research aspects of the history of my town. Since only from the mid-1980's and on is on the internet, I had to use the records on microfilm for those earlier years that are not on the computer. Hence, for researching historical or rare archives...I do not see microfilm or possibly even microfiche completely disappearing. So I am sure that some libraries will always be around. Now, that does not mean that the public library services will not be cut back. They will. The internet (more and more people have computers), e-books, etc. will cause the library to cut back a lot. It simply will not be as important as it has been in the past. But like I said, there will always be some lower income people that need to use the computers at the library; there will always be some people that prefer their hard copies of books; there will always be some people looking into rare and historical sources of information that may never get put on the internet. So while we should expect reductions in library services around the country, do not expect the disappearance of library services.
Libraries need to re-invent themselves to remain relevant in the Internet era. Just like everyone and everything else. We are all as good as our last useful function, and survival requires being useful.
However, I think they need to be privatized. I do not view it as just that money is removed from private families to support a public library.
We've argued about this before on City-Data, and I am not going to engage in back and forth on it as it would not be: useful! Nevertheless here a few reasons I think they are losing relevance:
1) Nobody goes. Yes I know a few that do go will scream in protest. But I'm probably being generous in estimating that 1% of the population of any suburban town in NJ has ever seen the inside of the library.
2) Most of what can be done in the library can be accomplished on any decent computer with an Internet connection.
3) Libraries are hideously expensive, and do not provide any return to 99% of the taxpayers.
4) Yes, fellowship and community are nice. But we have churches and synagogues and Knights of Columbus and clubs and all kinds of things for fellowship and community. In an era of insane overtaxation and overly large government, we really do not need to spend millions and millions of dollars to maintain these structures and salaries. Fellowship and community can be arranged for at a much lower price. And honestly, how much community is there in a library? You are not even allowed to talk.
5) Every town library is basically a duplicate of every other town library, plus or minus. And we have hundreds of them, all doing the same thing, or actually, all doing less and less in the Internet era, and costing more and more. Does that make sense?
6) How about just a single County library? And put it on a bus line. That would at least be marginally efficient in terms of non-duplication.
7) Yes. I know we waste money on hundreds of other things, so why should the Library be singled out? I do not single out the Library. I want to get rid of all the other hundreds of things that are wasteful also.
8) Nothing lasts forever. That's just life. Keeping things around because of sentimentality while expropriating wealth from private citizens to do so? How does that make sense, and even, how is it not immoral?
9) Carbon footprint. Libraries with collections of duplicated printed copies of everything represent a horrible environmental impact. And the utilities spent on keeping everything well lit and warm and clean and organized? Bad public policy to allow institutions that waste precious energy and contribute to pollution. The Internet can act as the single most beneficial impact on the environment in the history of mankind. But we have to let it do its job.
10) A private library that operates on a fee or volunteer or both basis will have to reinvent itself and make itself sufficiently valuable to attract a crowd. Maybe I'll even go on Philosophical Debate Night. How fun would that be?
They're on the verge of becoming extinct. Everything is online and you can access the internet from everything such as computers, to phones, to ipads, to mp3 players, even tv's have wi-fi. When I was a kid in the 80's-90's I had to go to the library, pull up an encyclopedia just to do my science project, those days are over.
Just like newspapers, it won't be long before they're all closed. School Librarians are also losing their jobs and relevance, as kids simply don't need libraries to do research anymore.
We had 2 in Montclair, the little one closed up because of funding, but a few residents complained and protested until the board finally let them reopen it as volunteers. That won't last long.
The question is what happens to the people who can't afford anything that allows them access to the Internet?
It's amazing how things have changed in the past 10 years or so. Back when I was a little kid, I used to go to the library solely for the books, and the computer was an afterthought. Then, I started having to do research and waiting on line for the computer at the library ended up being a lot more efficient than having to look through encyclopedias and books to find my research. The library slowly went from being a source of information from books to just a free Internet cafe (and then my family got a computer and hooked it up to the Internet, so the library became even less essential).
I wonder what is the percentage of households with no access to Internet at home (as of 2012). I think it might be something around 15%. It's enough to maintain libraries in urban areas, but they might start closing down in the suburbs (because 15% of 10,000 people is more than 15% of 1,000 people in a suburb)
On occasion, I still go to the library to take out a book (because it's cheaper than buying it from a bookstore), but even then I can usually print it out off the Internet.
What do people think about the future of libraries? I brought my baby daughter to our local library yesterday for the first time. I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't exactly impressed with the children's area.
The interactive toys (safe for under 3) were broken and dangerous. Everything was absolutely filthy too, with dust, hair and just dirt on the book shelves, small tables, etc. The books were in such shabby condition. A few of the books that we were looking at were all taped up.
There were a few older people there but overall it was empty except for the 10 plus employees. There were so many people working there that there may have been more employees than visitors.
I'm all about putting $$ into reading, education, etc. However, things are changing in how we access the written word. I don't know how libraries are going to be able to continue with outdated services, old/shabby books, etc.
Also, what do all those employees do?
That's weird. Mine doesn't have 10 employees and there are always people in it. It's also sort of a town center-community type place with a lot of meetings and different programs going on. The books for the little ones do get ripped because they are allowed to check them out and kids are rough on books. But I guess either they replace them at my branch or the parents are better at supervising. Or maybe the children's area in yours doesn't get used so no one pays attention to it? Talk to someone about it as I imagine that someone caring would be a step toward changing that.
I know two years ago there was a huge move to cut library funding and a huge protest to keep them open. At that time I was using Long Branch's library, which did seem to be pretty busy, and it was nice to see that there were a bunch of teenagers hanging out there, given what the neighborhood looks like a few blocks from that library. It seemed to be a safe refuge for the kids, and it was very clean.
I moved a few towns away, and now I live five minutes from the Eastern Branch of the Monmouth County Library. It is beautiful. They seem to have a lot of activities there, especially for seniors and for children/families. I enjoy spending time there, either reading or taking my laptop to do some writing, because I live alone and sometimes it is nice just to be around other human beings, even if we aren't conversing. That's something to take into consideration--I read not long ago that the number of single-person households in NJ has surpassed the number of households with two-parent families w/children. Sometimes those of us who are alone just want to be in the proximity of other people. A library is a good place for that.
Anyway, someone here mentioned a county library system--in the case of Monmouth, it does work. I've never been to my municipal library, which looks very small.
Well, I guess that we could implement the suggestion made some years ago by Newt Gingrich, which was nicknamed "Laptops for the poor"!
Newt theorized that it would be cheaper in the long run to give every poor person a laptop computer and free internet access than it would be to maintain a local library system in each town, along with the obvious costs for salaries, heating, book acquisitions, etc.
What Newtie failed to grasp, however, was the ridiculousness of giving a very expensive, highly portable, and--thus--highly theft-prone piece of equipment to folks who frequently live in very high-crime areas. And, of course, then there would be the reality that some of the folks who were gifted with a brand-new laptop would promptly sell it in order to buy (pick one or more) food, alcohol, drugs, lottery tickets, or...God-only-knows what else.
Sometimes what seems like an obvious solution is...not a good idea.
Last edited by Retriever; 01-11-2012 at 07:53 AM..
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