Above and below: post office and library, Tuscarora, Nevada (credit: Robert Dawson)
These are brutal times for public libraries. Two years ago they froze book purchases. Last year they cut staff and reduced service hours, spreading the pain among branches in rolling blackouts. This year they are on the chopping block again, and there is nothing to cut but bone...A gallery of several dozen of the photos is available at The Design Observer Group.
What’s at stake here is more than access to a room full of books. The modern American public library is reading room, book lender, video rental outlet, internet café, town hall, concert venue, youth activity center, research archive, history museum, art gallery, homeless day shelter, office suite, coffeeshop, seniors’ clubhouse and romantic hideaway rolled into one. In small towns of the American West, it is also the post office and the backdrop of the local gun range. These are functions that the digital public libraries of the future will never be able to recreate.
Since 1994, Robert Dawson has surveyed hundreds of the more than 17,000 public libraries in the United States... Dawson’s photographs make the case for the public library as an American Commons, perhaps the greatest we’ve ever had. — Josh Wallaert
Via Librarianista.
"Libraries will get you through times with no money better than money will get you through times with no libraries."
ReplyDelete(wish I could remember who said that).
Anne Herbert -
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Herbert_%28writer%29
In 71, as the new library was about to open in Troy, Mi., the children's librarian asked well known figures of the day to write notes of congratulation to the children on their new library. They can be found at: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/05/library-is-many-things.htm
ReplyDeleteSome are quite eloquent and touching.
"Libraries will get you through times with no money better than money will get you through times with no libraries."
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed to say that until now the only version of this I had ever heard was the one that has "dope" instead of "libraries."
--Swift Loris
Los Angeles Unified School District has closed ALL school libraries, and is in the process of trying to fire all the librarians because they do not have "recent teaching experience'. That's just WRONG.
ReplyDeleteHere are some links about the shameless firing of school librarians in Los Angeles.
ReplyDeletehttp://mizzmurphy.blogspot.com/2011/05/settle-in-its-long-one.html
http://tinyurl.com/6knpu5p
Works if you're a stranger in Tasmania, too. Thanks, George Town Public Library, which looks like those in the pix.
ReplyDeleteLibraries, like all gov't programs, are now bloated and their solutionis obsolete. I would much rather cut our defense(offense?)spending but that doesn't take away from how expensive a box of books to lend has become. Do we need folks with PHD's to be the custodians of billions of pages of one of a kind paper in massive climate controlled buildings that are constructed with finer materials than many houses? Probably not. IF we could move to a red box type distibution system of kiosks with 2-300 e-readers, we'd eliminate an amazing portion of the overhead of climate control, maintenance, and wages. The tech within 5 years would make this more accessible than school (walking distance, hopefully) and I'd support that. Heck, I'd settle for consolidatiing libraries - put them in the schools since they get the most use out of them - but of course then the book sensoring bozos would have a field day - like the city of Farmer's Branch, Texas (but their motivations were not fiscal).
ReplyDeleteHaving just gone to my local (and renovated) libary, I can only say this: I just couldn't imagine a world without the local libary. I mean, it's a receptucle of books and videos (I just got a good amount of documentaries from there, including a VHS tape, since I still have a player). Obsolete? Hell no! Not for the people who either can't afford proper internet access, or those who would rather read it up in a book than on a kindle/iPad/computer. As someone with glasses, it does hurt the eyes to read books that way. Also, I know of no other place which will allow you to sit down and relax with a book before you purchase it, go on the internet for a while, copy and scan pages, study in a calm and quiet environment, hang out with friends, check out old photos of town or see the art set up in the lobby, or host clubs in the auditoriums in the main hall. Libaries are more than just places with books; they're places with connection and something that I cannot name at the moment that a home or any other place doesn't have. There's something special about libaries.
ReplyDelete