News Report 2

The future of libraries, with or without books
John D. Sutter
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/04/future.library.technology/index.html

The stereotypical library is dying -- and it's taking its shushing ladies, dank smell and endless shelves of books with it. Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. "Loud rooms" that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet. Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians. And that's just the surface. By some accounts, the library system is undergoing a complete transformation that goes far beyond these image changes.
Authors, publishing houses, librarians and Web sites continue to fight Google's efforts to digitize the world's books and create the world's largest library online. Meanwhile, many real-world libraries are moving forward with the assumption that physical books will play a much-diminished or potentially nonexistent role in their efforts to educate the public.
Some books will still be around, they say, although many of those will be digital. But the goal of the library remains the same: To be a free place where people can access and share information.
"The library building isn't a warehouse for books," said Helene Blowers, digital strategy director at the Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library. "It's a community gathering center."Think of the change as a Library 2.0 revolution -- a mirror of what's happened on the Web.


When I read this article the first thing that came to my mind was the other day at work. An older man came into the store and was asking for an ebook. At first I looked confused and thought about our service on campus. Then I realize he was talking about the ebooks that Sony and Amazon makes. The older gentlemen easily said, “I hate to go away from the standard way of reading but this ebook is pretty convenient when you are older because having the ability to read in dark is a plus and you don’t have to worry about carrying two or three books around. The article is discussing trends that are according around the country. People now don’t want to wait and read a book about information. It’s now a time in age where getting the information as quickly as possible and the old school way is no longer needed. I feel like libraries are going to stay around with some making the change especially in those rural areas were the library is the place of history for that town.