Quote:
Originally Posted by Ravensknight
Libraries were never meant to be archives. At least not so far as I was ever aware...
|
Actually that is the major function of libraries ever since the great library at Alexandria. For most of the history of literacy libraries WERE archives. The whole point was to provide a repository of knowledge, art and information that could not be easily found elsewhere.
The thing is, those little public libraries -- the ones that provide videos and internet access and throw out old books -- are really just public service centers of the larger library system. They tend to emphasize popular books in the first place. They never had extensive collections for scholarship or anything like that. BUT....
Those libraries serve as a public location for inter-library loan and all the other functions that their customers may get from the larger library system. And the really bad thing is that while people will rally around their little library which a small collection of only popular books, they tend to ignore the bigger libraries in the background that supply these little ones with services.
So the state and county collections - the REAL collections - are decimated by politicians looking for some place to cut while the little service centers are left to become just community centers with a very limited number of books.
But back on point - libraries will exist in future, but they will change. The need for safe public access to hardback books for children and the general public won't go away, nor will the need for archives. We'll see more and more use of internet. (Just as in the old days there were rows and rows of desks for microfiche readers - now replaced by computers.)
Camille