Public libraries’ potential grows ever larger in digital age
St. Louis Main Library's Great Hall
Libraries long held a monopoly as the place to go for research: anything from basic matters like job searches and gardening to esoteric matters like Azerbaijanian culture.
The Internet has changed a lot of that, putting basic — and sometimes exotic — knowledge at your fingertips. You can read Google Books’ collection online for free, or download e-books onto electronic readers, many of them for free. Lots of materials on library shelves have migrated into digital form, and increasingly they are available to all comers via the Web.
What exactly will libraries have to “check out” in the years ahead? Plenty.
Ironically, the digital revolution has increased demand for the fundamental services that libraries provide: Helping people understand how information is organized and how to find the best sources of the information they seek, whether it’s in the library stacks or on a digital file in some remote location.
Libraries that play their cards right find themselves moving into a new golden era. St. Louis stands at the leading edge of these possibilities.
Waller McGuire, is director of the St. Louis Public Library, one of the best-supported public library systems in the nation. He presides over a collection of more than 4 million items, housed at 16 facilities throughout the city, supported by a $22 million annual budget. He’s seen patron visits steadily increase by more than 1 million per year over the last decade — driven in part by a large investment in the renovation of community branch libraries.
He expects visits to exceed 3.5 million in 2009, an increase of between 5 to 10 percent from 2008.
The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy issued a report earlier this month that identified libraries as ideal institutions to provide digital and media training, especially for adults. Indeed, the St. Louis Public Library was an early adopter of public internet access.
Patrons can schedule and reserve computer time, but walk-ins seldom have a long wait. They are aided by a cadre of “public technology assistants” and wireless internet is available at all facilities for patrons who bring their own portable computers. Demand for these services has grown as the economy has declined.
But “computers and pipeline,” even when accompanied by advice and instruction, represent just a part of public libraries’ potential for community leadership in the digital age. The proof of this proposition will be tested by a highly ambitious plan to renovate the spectacular Main Library building downtown, with work set to begin in 2010.
The project will cost an estimated $70 million, with a significant part coming from private philanthropy. It will double the available public space and dramatically revamp the digital capacity and offerings for the entire library system — reaching out not just to technical sophisticates but to the entire community.
Therein lies a twist that every astute librarian has come to know: The pursuit of digital information is not solitary. In fact, it has a highly social element that brings people together in the real world to discuss ideas and put them into action.
The St. Louis Public Library seeks to capture this demand by delivering, as Mr. McGuire puts it, “a brilliantly functioning modern library in a beaux-arts masterpiece.” A great community asset stands to become even greater.
Schools have already made the switch. They don’t have libraries anymore, they have media centers. I guess the big question is: where is the Andrew Carnegie of our time?
Andrew Carnegie the exploiter? Oh, they’re out there.
Ask the people of Edwardsville and thousands of other small towns how exploited they’ve been by their libraries since the late 1800’s. Carnegie’s donation of libraries came from his experience as an immigrant himself that the best way for immigrants to succeed in America was to be able to learn the English language and better themselves by reading. His generosity greatly helped my immigrant grandfather who spoke seven languages. Unfortunately, English wasn’t one of them, so he was barred from attending schools here and had to educate himself in the libraries of the coal mining towns of Southern Illinois. I would think someone on the left side of the fence would appreciate that. Regardless of how you feel about how Carnegie earned his money, it does demonstrate the difference between then and now. Then, the rich were allowed to decide to be generous, or in his case, magnanimous. Now, they are forced to redistribute their wealth. I would say his private philanthropy will be more lasting than the pork projects we see from taxation.
“Then, the rich were allowed to decide to be generous, or in his case, magnanimous. Now, they are forced to redistribute their wealth. I would say his private philanthropy will be more lasting than the pork projects we see from taxation.”
–Nice passive-aggressive swipe at the estate tax. Too bad you’re wrong. No one put a gun to Bill Gates’ head and forced him to create a global foundation for educating youth, but he went ahead and did it.
Funny, I don’t see the Waltons doing anything like that. And they are certainly under NO obligation to do so.
Of course someone put a gun to his head. He could either form the foundation or pay half of it in Federal Death tax, (plus state tax, 6% in MO). I find it amusing that Gates and his father are loud proponents of the death tax which directs money to the US Federal Government, and he is spending his money on projects mainly outside the US. So, Gates and Buffet, two of the largest mouths in favor of extracting American wealth from private and legitimate heirs and sending it to the US Federal Government, have decided they don’t trust the Federal Government with their wealth and are directing it to foreign projects themselves. But, for the rest of you peons, pay up, the government that runs the country that made them rich needs the money. It is their right to spend their money however they want and it should be my right to bequeath my money to my daughter.
My only comment is to the digitally advanced St Louis Public Library system.
When are you going to update your website and make it user friendly for your patrons. I continue to leave the city for municipal and county libraries due to being able to search, locate, and request items in their collections simply via their websites.
These comments about taxes are a far cry from support for the library and represent the divisiveness in our society today. Isn’t there anything we can all be for? Libraries of today provide a lot more than just meeting technology needs of the public. For one thing, they can be schools for those who didn’t see how school had anything to do with real life back in their younger days and now see what they missed. Libraries are places for people to check out want ads, to learn new skills through workshops or through self-guided work. Libraries are an important stone in building a strong society. Obviously, I feel passionately about their contributions to anyone who will take the time to use them.