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Library grumping
3/6/13 12:47It seems like every time I read a newspaper article on libraries the comments always say that libraries need to get with the 21st century already. We need to have a way to instant-message questions to reference librarians! (We have it.) We need to have a way to look up databases of articles from home! (We have it.) We need to lend out e-books! (We, well...)
Librarians are trying really hard to get with the 21st century. Often there's no money. Often we're doing a heck of a lot better than people realize if they haven't been inside a library in ten years. And often... companies like Elsevier, and commercial publishers, are seemingly doing everything in their power to make it hard and expensive for libraries to get better access to databases and e-books.
Also not thrilled about Malcolm Gladwell grumping at the NYPL renovation. Poorer neigborhoods need better libraries, yes. The main NYPL branch is not about "rich people who live in midtown should have a super nice library"; it's about "NYC as a whole needs a great research library that's open to the public, and if the collection gets shipped off to New Jersey, we're going to lose that." And it seems like so often people argue about every little piece of the pie when, really, we need to come together so we can argue for making the pie bigger.
(And a huge one-time donor gift is not the kind of thing that can keep neighborhood libraries afloat from year to year; staffing is a huge concern and a lot more expensive than most people realize.)
Librarians are trying really hard to get with the 21st century. Often there's no money. Often we're doing a heck of a lot better than people realize if they haven't been inside a library in ten years. And often... companies like Elsevier, and commercial publishers, are seemingly doing everything in their power to make it hard and expensive for libraries to get better access to databases and e-books.
Also not thrilled about Malcolm Gladwell grumping at the NYPL renovation. Poorer neigborhoods need better libraries, yes. The main NYPL branch is not about "rich people who live in midtown should have a super nice library"; it's about "NYC as a whole needs a great research library that's open to the public, and if the collection gets shipped off to New Jersey, we're going to lose that." And it seems like so often people argue about every little piece of the pie when, really, we need to come together so we can argue for making the pie bigger.
(And a huge one-time donor gift is not the kind of thing that can keep neighborhood libraries afloat from year to year; staffing is a huge concern and a lot more expensive than most people realize.)