Quote:
Originally Posted by wizwor
Worse, with the arrival of the internet and the demand for entertainment, libraries are no longer the best place to do research -- limited publications and old encyclopedias are no match for the internet.
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As an academic library paraprofessional, this is bullshit. The internet does not, and cannot yet, compete with a trained, professional librarian and the myriad of resources said librarian can access on behalf of the patron -- especially since the average patron doesn't know how to properly conduct said research anyway. Not everything is online and open access; I know because
it is my job to help people find access to research that they need, and the very first place I search after I've exhausted my local library catalog is the internet. You know how much of the research that people want I've actually found online? Maybe half, and I'm being generous with my estimation here. Do you know how many interlibrary loan requests I've filled for public libraries that borrow our materials because they don't own them -- materials their patrons couldn't have accessed if they hadn't asked us to lend to them? Thousands in the course of a single year, and I'm from a small library. And do you know how often I, despite years of on-the-job-experience, have to turn a question over to an actual reference librarian because I'm still not qualified enough to help? Neither do I because I do it so bloody often.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: libraries aren't just big warehouses full of book and out of date magazines, and librarians aren't just the people who stand behind the desk and hand the books to you or reshelve them when you bring them back (those people are often paraprofessionals like me or pages who might just be volunteers). Libraries are repositories of knowledge and information, in whatever format the community needs that information to be shaped. They aren't charities for just the poor and the illiterate, and the men and women who staff them provide legitimate services to the community that other people aren't trained to provide. You can't replace public libraries with schools/school libraries, because it's not just students who need them, and it's not just homework kids use libraries for. You can't replace them with the internet, because despite common adages, not everything is available on it. You can't replace library-provided internet access with wi-fi from McDonald's or Starbucks, because not everyone owns a device with which to access those networks, and nobody at McD's or Starbucks is going to have the skill to help a patron with research, or the time show them where to fill out their taxes, or how to email their resume to a prospective employer.
Yes, even at my academic library, where almost everyone on campus owns a laptop, I still get tons of non-student patrons who come use our public access terminals for things like job applications and checking their email, or reading the news, because they don't have the internet or a computer or a subscription to a newspaper. I get parents who check out movies and books for their kids and themselves because they can't afford to buy their entertainment, and because $15 for a library card that lasts two years is a way better deal than Netflix. I get patrons who call me on the phone asking how to find such-and-such business because they don't have the internet to do the search themselves, and it's not a company that's in the local phone book.
In my experience, the only people who say there is no place for libraries/librarians in our society are the people who don't know what libraries/librarians actually do.