Library grumping

[owlectomy]

It 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.)

Comments

[oyceter]

Argh! When I was in grad school for information sciences, one professor would go off all the time about how libraries are irrelevant, blah blah blah, and other people would agree, and it was so completely obvious they had not been to one in over a decade or so and were arguing about some fantasy library that existed only in their heads.

[brigid]

I'm so frustrated with how under funded libraries in Chicago are! Other library branches had the ability to reserve & renew materials online for YEARS before Chicago did, and CPL can only accept cash (and checks?) not debit/credit cards to pay fees... because they can't afford the machines. It is SO frustrating! And there's a HUGE disparity in library size and amenities based on what neighborhood you're in and how affluent it is. UGH. I'm pretty sure most of these problems could be solved by raising taxes and shoving fistfulls of money at the library system. Sadly, that's not likely to happen because people are ridiculous.