The Buffalo News Takes A Nice Look at all the new stuff at The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.
They point out the library is turning to the Internet more and more these days to provide borrowers with ways they can make the resources of the public library fit their hectic, over-stressed lifestyles.
“I like to say, “It’s not your grandmother’s library,’ ” said Carla Hayden, president of the Chicago-based American Library Association. “This is a national trend – it’s an evolution of library services.”
Library widens web
It is only natural that “libraries are turning to the Internet more and more these days” since information dissemination/sharing/exhange is so easy and fast. Moreover, the information on the Internet is inherently multimedia and globally accessible as it is based on truly international standards. On the contrary, libraries have collections that are based mainly on the print format, ie books and journals. The greatest stumbling block is the proprietary library systems that are based on antiquated “library” standards that nobody else uses, ie MARC, AACR2, that are very restricted in scope and functionality. Like typewriters have been replaced by word processors, the library is largely being replaced by the Internet and digital information. This does not mean that libraries become totally useless/worthless but it does mean our significance is less than before or the market share of libraries is reduced as more people use Internet over libraries. It just means that we have to embrace information technology and use it to our advantage rather than fearing it as a threat to library existence!