Are Public Libraries “Permanently F***ed?” Maybe Not
You probably won’t learn much from this one, but that headline was too good to pass up.
“Perhaps the disgruntled librarians are hiding out in some sub-basement, smoking cigarettes and fidgeting with their switchblades,” she says. “Maybe later they’ll have a dance-off. Maybe librarians are simply the most optimistic people on the planet. I leave it for a better person than me to decide.”
(Via the great and powerful librarystuff.net)
As a book lover married to an
As a book lover married to an unemployed librarian, I don’t need to tell librarians how to remain relevant and keep people coming in the door. I need to show policymakers and budget cutters what’s already being done. Students still come in to study and use computers together. Librarians still show kids and parents how to use reference material, or how to judge whether an Internet source is reliable. Classes held in the library, taught either by staff or locals, show seniors how to use computers. Look in any corner, and you’ll see the fruitful marriage of print and new tech, and librarians directing it all. Cutting funding for public libraries is not trimming fat by pruning an obsolescent branch; it’s short-sighted and mean.