Here’s a very positive piece about the changing role of libraries, highlighting the changing culture at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (NC).
Libraries, they say, are moving away from silent, forbidding places and redefining themselves as “destination” spots that offer how-to workshops, video games, crafts — even coffee.
Not everyone is pleased with the evolution, however.
Bill Otto, a health care consultant, says he thinks it’s part of the “dumbing down of our system.”“What’s next? Where does it stop?” he asks. “The public library is trying to be all things to all people — but maybe that’s wrong. We just keep adjusting the standards and lowering them.”
More from the Charlotte Observer
re: Libraries Not So Quiet Anymore
In local libraries some of the noise gets generated by part-time reference desk workers. Their raspy voices using the library telephones for their personal phone calls eminating random thoughts out of a defective intellect often sets a standard the public emulates.