Why libraries exist

This is especially the case in small communities where, unfortunately, they are currently most under threat of closure. When they close the post offices, the clubs and the libraries, then the local people lose meeting places.

When libraries are adequately funded, people use them — see the record number of users at Hillingdon or any new library such as Portishead. Alan Gibbons believes the million visits per year to public libraries could double with proper leadership of the service. I f one takes virtual visits into account, usage is increasing. Libraries are cheap to run. When given a choice of losing their library or increasing council tax, people choose the library — for example, in Wiltshire.

The same is the case, with many more examples in the USA , where there is a strong upward trend in library use. Many offer subscription-only online family history tools such as Ancestry, for free. Intellectual freedom is basic to public libraries which help to sustain a democratic society. Libraries are increasingly lend E-books. Libraries are not being made obsolete by technology. With the decline of bookshops on the High Street, Libraries may become the only place where one can browse physical books.

The loss of book shops has led to loss of book sales — not all of it has migrated online. Google proposed deleting its entire video archive in April and only stopped due to public protest. The same could happen with Google Books.

Equally with other groups — Facebook have been deleting political groups without warning too. Public libraries have never been in competition with booksellers nor are they now with e-booksellers.

Librarians are not booksellers. People buy books and borrow books — one does not preclude the other. Ebooks other than those out of copyright are expensive and so do not necessarily threaten libraries. Another analogy is radio and television — the advent of television did not mean the death of the radio. Add to this the other functions of the public library see above and it is clear that the advent of ebooks therefore does not mean the death of public libraries.

Librarians are trained how to find the correct answer. Learn more about school libraries by visiting the web site of the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association, at www.

An academic library is associated with a degree-granting institution of higher education. The modern academic library provides access not only to print materials, but also to a wide range of media, electronic resources, and a variety of learning spaces. The key mission of academic libraries is to support the research and teaching missions of their institutions through the delivery of excellent services and the broadest array of resources to students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their location.

Some librarians supplement their education with knowledge in a specialized field, often earning advanced degrees in the discipline. Many academic librarians hold faculty status. Academic librarians strive to meet the information needs of students, faculty, researchers, and other library users. In order to accomplish this, they. These specialists deal with materials such as. Learn more about academic libraries and librarians by visiting the web site of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, at www.

Special libraries offer services within a specialized environment, such as corporations, hospitals, the military, museums, private businesses, and the government. Special libraries can serve particular populations, such as the blind and physically handicapped, while others are dedicated to special collections, such as the Library of Congress or a presidential library.

Staff in a special library must be aware of materials, developments, issues and research in that library's area of focus. In a pharmaceutical company, for example, the library will need to offer materials to support the research that is done so that scientists have a comprehensive view of what has already been established in their area of interest. New products should not replicate existing products and findings of studies on side-effects and toxicity would be vital for further research.

In every case, the library service is tailored to a very specific area and supports that special interest. Special libraries are funded by their parent institutions. Some special libraries make material available through inter-library loan, and some allow usage and borrowing. In most cases, special library materials are available only to specific users, and borrowing and usage are governed strictly by individual policies.

Learn more about special libraries at the Special Library Association web site, www. In many communities seeking to provide library resources for more than one segment of the population, it has become prudent to explore combining resources and services into a joint-use facility. Many joint-use libraries exist today, and there is a great deal of information about them-case studies, articles that discuss the considerations of combining services, implementation, perceptions, evaluations, advice, etc.

Some have been successful while others have been challenging. And indeed in my role on the board of the Atwater Library we spent lots of time trying to figure out how we could craft a message that resonated more widely with the wider population, how we could shift the institution from being primarily about books, to something completely different.

We succeeded to some degree. That could have been clearer, I suppose. Where is the blockage? After posting my comment I did stop and wonder if this post was more about budget distribution, so thank you for clarifying that point.

Excellent article, but I would suggest a couple of things. I certainly agree that book lending will need to substantially change. However the largest budget expenditure for most libraries is in fact the staff and not the lending materials. Which is why I would have as first in your definitions of what is a library for. To provide a range of services to the public through the use of professional librarian staff. As to the chapter on fake friction, I would agree and say that libraries have conspicuously failed to provide, anticipate or manage ebooks.

Libraries had enormous forewarning of ebooks rise, but failed to act, failed to organise and failed to negotiate, thus we are left with OverDrive and whatever terms HarperCollins etc.

NOTE: I am not necessarily saying that we should slash book lending budgets. The importance of that service will continue to wane, in my opinion. So how will libraries adapt? Pingback : Akma » Yes, Indeed! I agree that library as a community gathering place is extremely important. Programming is a popular service and can be easily geared toward any group of people, young and old, of any ethnicity, education level, socio-economic level.

Another purpose of libraries is to fight for intellectual freedom, defend free speech and expression, and stand up to censorship.

Yes, I think so, but I wonder how much support public libraries get for that work, within the governments that typically fund them, and the populations they typically serve? This is really the challenge for libraries, I think: to make the case that they are central pillars that make for healthy communities — books, ebooks, or otherwise.

Ellie expressed, and far more coherently at that, everything I am feeling in this moment. I, too, had a strong knee-jerk reaction to this piece, for the simple reason that I cannot, CANNOT understand why we are in such a mad rush to divest ourselves of everything human, tactile, tangible, physical, in favor of all that is cold, clinical, impersonal, digital. But I will stand by my mad world to its bitter end, rather than go quietly into that horrid dark night, in which the tactile, sensual pleasure of a print book — made, I might add, from renewable resources instead of conflict metals that exploit workers and colonialize the digital sphere still further — are valued and cherished.

As a librarian-cartoonist who often self-publishes using print-on-demand services made possible by our digital tech, that is , I have sympathy for this knee-jerk reaction. Actually, what worries me even more is the loss of diversity of materials, that we will throw all of our eggs into a digital basket and sacrifice all of the wonderful analog options we have created the past years — not counting years of bookmaking, of course.

Consumers now have a lot of choice to meet their information needs and their different learning styles. Digital will actually increase access drastically:. Billions of people live without any access to libraries or bookstores but have phones, the fast majority of which will within a few years be internet-connected smartphones fully suitable for reading.

Budget pressures mean library hours are increasingly limited and book acquisition budgets constrained, further limiting practical access. Every eBook can license terms and SW permitting be read out loud with text-to-speech functionality.

How many audio books does your library stock? Digital is making a vastly increased selection of books available to all. Hugh, what a great piece. You were thorough and analytical and I think you laid out the issues beautifully.

I think most people not deeply steeped in libraries would view public libraries as, primarily, places that gather content to make it accessible.

The community space and education elements would be seen by most as secondary functions that flow from the building full of books. But, whatever we end up calling it, every library around today is going to come up with a whole new rationale to keep its doors open in the years to come.

Anyone who disagrees is doing so because inertia is a powerful force, not because the argument is incorrect. Actually, no — there are other reasons to disagree with this post. Your statement is a perfect example of how the dominant discourse automatically dismisses criticism out of hand by making an ad hominem argument about the critic.

The mere fact that it is possible to copy and distribute a product at no cost does not mean that it necessarily will become free in the marketplace. The cost of making and distributing another copy of Windows has always been next to nothing.

Yet, Bill Gates has become one of the richest men in the world by selling a product that technically can be distributed almost as freely as an ebook could be.

The whole for-profit software industry is trying to do the same. In many ways, there are very strong similarities between the for-profit software industry and ebook publishers. Yes, of course, it is true that there are many more books out there than readers can or want to read. But that has been true for at least years since the invention of mass-production printing. When people want to read a book, they want a specific title or a specific type of book. In fact, I think that the concept of supply and demand for books in general is almost irrelevant in trying to figure out how much ebooks will cost.

Scientific discoveries, lives and histories: libraries are a place to store it all! Librarians organize the information in a way that makes it easy for people to find what they're looking for.

The Dewey Decimal System is just one method. The first libraries were collections of official records and documents. During the 7th century BC, the library of Nineveh in Mesopotamia held more than 25, clay tablets. The most famous library in the ancient world was in the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Did you know it's still around, rebuilt in a modern form?