Cortez writes “Walnut Creek is the latest Bay Area city to propose a new library, an $18 million, 42,000-square-foot showcase: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
“Didn’t the Internet take over what librarians used to do? “That was the standard question five years ago for library administrators when they interviewed for a job,” says Julie Casamajor, assistant director for public services at the new Livermore library. “What is going to happen to libraries now that modern technology has taken over?” Actually, exactly the opposite has happened. In the past five years, despite the overwhelming presence of the Internet, libraries are experiencing record attendance. Musty books? Stacks of shelves? A stern librarian enforcing the code of silence? That’s trendy? Nope. Nothing like that. The new library is a sprawling, open, friendly place where people go to surf the Web on a Wi-Fi connection, sip a latte and check out a movie. There are still books, of course, but nationally the most popular items to be checked out of libraries are DVDs. Traditionalists are horrified.”
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