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Publishers, beware: ‘The future of libraries, with or without books’
September 5, 2009 | 9:30 am
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By David Rothman
Are public libraries necessary?
So ask some in publishing, They even wonder if the new tech shouldn’t nuke the old business models. Why not jut have private rental plans? Or just let children and families use online bookstores?
Because, dear publishers, free library books are among your best marketing tools. Hook ‘em while they’re young.
Bookless libraries ahead?
In fact, publishers should worry less about competition from libraries and more about a less-than-happy trend that CNN discusses in a piece headlined The Future of libraries, with or without books.
Excerpt: “Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. ‘Loud rooms’ that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet. Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians.”
So now what happens if the libraries can’t even offer e-books under reasonable terms?
Optimal scenario: TeleRead
The optimal scenario, as I see it, would be a mix of for-profit activities and a well-stocked national digital library system carefully integrated with local schools and libraries—and with a definite agenda: the encouragement of reading and other forms of learning.
Meanwhile here’s something else to chew on: “In the United States, libraries are largely funded by local governments, many of which have been hit hard by the recession.
“That means some libraries may not get to take part in technological advances. It also could mean some of the nation’s 16,000 public libraries could be shut down or privatized. Schultz, of the Berkeley Law School, said it would be easy for public officials to point to the growing amount of free information online as further reason to cut public funding for libraries.”
Related: Cushing Academy getting rid of all its books, by Paul Biba.
Image: CC-licensed photo from the San Jose public library.
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Comments:
Libraries are not only necessary but essential community resources.
Publishers just need to understand that they are *not* the center of the universe and libraries are not just about books.
They haven’t been so for a couple decades, now.
Those guys really need to wake up and smell the coffee. At a minimum, they need to get out of their glass towers once in a while.
This is what modern libraries are like:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/192764
Poor people need libraries. Poor people need to be able to read books for free. I’m from a very poor background and, without public libraries, I wouldn’t have read a hundredth of what I did as a child. Books are outrageously-expensive luxury items when you can’t afford food and rent.
Whether we need bricks and mortar and large collections of paper books is another matter. If every man, woman and (especially) child is given an e-book reader and a free Internet accout for downloading books, all you really need is one, well-stocked, national library, sitting on the Internet somewhere.
Some years ago they tried to close a library I use a lot – and some local politicians were left feeling very bruised after several hundred very angry (and very articulate) readers turned up to a poorly advertised public meeting about the closure. The hit of the night was a man who got up and said that he had left school at 14 barely able to read and write and had managed to educate himself by using the library’s resources. Needless to say the library is still very much open and no politician has dared to make even the slightest negative comment about libraries ever again.