Of course not all libraries are created equally. Some public libraries are designed to serve fewer than 10,000; others as many as 500,000 or more with collections of sundry media types numbering in the. Over 60% of all libraries are in the smallest range, with those in the mid and upper ranges usually having multiple branches with shared catalogs. Smaller library systems often join state or national book sharing organizations, as the library I grew up with did.
The origin of the public library is an oft disputed thing with many countries and cites clamming to be the birth place of the “first” public library. The earliest examples of freely offered collections were in Greek and Roman times, but these works were never lent out. There were similar examples in Islamic cultures during the 9th century.
In the first decade of the 17th century the modern public library began to take shape with the advent of municipality owned libraries in the UK. Later in the century the United States added its first publicly owned library in Boston. However all these examples differed from public libraries in one important aspect, they charged for their services.
The first free library would not come into existence until 1803, but it would not be publicly funded. Instead, the Scoville public library was supported by donations and by damage fees. Finally the first publicly owned, free library was created in the town of Peterborough, New Hampshire in 1833. The funding for the library was originally intended for a state collage, but the money was not sufficient for the effort, and so the library was created instead. New Hampshire passed a law sixteen years latter allowing taxes to be gathered to support public libraries, proving that the institution was popular. Boston Public Library was founded not long after (intentionally this time) followed by many other major metropolitan libraries.
Still the libraries of the time did not resemble modern libraries in there organization. In general the libraries were organized according to the whims of the institutions curator, and a standard form did not exist. In addition many libraries had odd and short open hours and were often not open very long. That is until 1890 and Melville Dewey, president of the ALA at the time, began organizing libraries under his self titled decimal system and campaigned for open hours similar to those of area businesses. Finally the libraries resemble those of the modern era.
Change has not stopped however, as in just the last decade library card catalogs have become computerized and libraries have begun offering other services such as internet access and computer training. The most modern libraries have even begun digitizing there collections, both for preservation of older works even distribution in some cases. Libraries have also begun to offer services that seem antithetical to our traditional view of libraries, such as coffee shops (so far only offered in Greesnboro, NC) and day care services to encourage increased usage.
This is in large part a response to public funding problems that have plagued the US in recent years. These problems are not limited to libraries and are instead part of a larger epidemic among all city services as those losing population, such as Detroit and New Orleans. Some libraries have been forced to reduce their services due to this and others have closed down for long periods of time.
Despite this issue most public libraries are still going strong and are ever adapting to the needs of their patrons.
Questions
What do you use your public library for?
How will public libraries change in the future?
Sources
Adams, Cecil. "How Did Public Libraries Get Started?" The Straight Dope. 2006. 22 Jan. 2008
Bates, Matthew. Library : an Unquiet History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.
11 comments:
Speaking of public libraries, there is a new proposal on the way that public libraries are funded in Michigan. You can view the proposal on Nancy Robertson's blog - she is the State Librarian for Michigan. What's nice about viewing it via her blog is that you can also see the reactions from librarians across the state, including some library directors. You can see the blog post here: http://statelibrarianofmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/12/proposal-for-comment.html
Public Libraries are near and dear to my heart, mainly because I have spent time being a patron, volunteering and working in my current library since I was 12 years old. It provided me my first job, a community of people I am very close to, and a future career that I hope will be a success.
I feel that public libraries have been changing for many years in the direction of more programs and an environment that is more customer service oriented. This is a change that I feel suprises many. At least in my community, when I meet someone and tell them some of what I do, like running programs for teens where they can all get together and play Dance Dance Revolution while eating chips and drinking pop, it isn't what they expect to hear. It know it is the philosophy of our current director at my library that as far as worries about future funding, the way to get future milages passed is to provide more programming and draw people into the library by providing more services. While collection building is still important, just having the materials available is no longer enough.
Customer service and being able to work with the public is also very important when looking into public libraries. I spent a brief time working at Ann Arbor District Library and patron complaints were taken very seriously.
On one occasion there was a complaint that someone had shut off the self-checks at closing when a patron's daughter was going to use it. The complaint said that the library employee refused to let the daughter check out the materials at that point. I had worked that evening and everyone who was there that night was questioned about the incident. It turned out (to the best of our knowledge) to be a fabricated incident made up by the daughter who was supposed to pick up some holds for the mom but had apparently forgotten. However, I have no doubt that had any of the incident been true, someone would have been taken to task.
I feel that in the future more and more libraries will lean toward better programming and better customer service as they realize that it is the patron's we are serving that ultimately vote for our funding. I also think that with these programs and services public libraries might become more like community centers than simply places to check out reading material.
While reading your blog, I started thinking back to a project on did on Ben Franklin a few years ago. While I could not find the textbook I used, I did look it up and Ben Franklin actually started the first lending library in about 1731. Him and a group of friends started trading their books and pooling their money together to buy books. This eventually became the Library Company.This Library Company is even still around.
I use the public library for many things right now(1 being for a paycheck. =) ). In the past and again now, I will use the public library for research and quiet study time. I also use it for entertainment, romance novels, fiction novels, historical novels, to name just a few. I also check out movies and audiobooks.
I don't think public libraries will really change that much. Obviously they will gain more technology, and there will be more resources available. However, people will always be able to check out their favorite books, they will go for the quiet atmosphere, they will go to make a copy of the daily New York Times crossword puzzle. And that is one of the things people like best about the library.
Works Cited
Benjamin Franklin. (2008, January). Retrieved January 31, 2008, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
A very good example to follow !
On October 10, 2007, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley proposed a $108-million property tax increase–among the largest in city history—that would augment funding for library operations and possibly allow the construction of new facilities.
Since Daley took office in 1989, 52 new branches have been built in Chicago. “Libraries are extensions of the school system, of the learning environment,” he said in the October 2 Tribune. “If a society is going to do well, you put the money into education and you put money into libraries...Libraries, schools and parks are the key to preventing children [from] going into gangs, guns, and drugs. Immigrant families go to libraries. Kids whose parents are working have to go to libraries for homework. Libraries are anchors in communities."
Works cited: Chicago Mayor Calls for Huge Tax Hike to Help Libraries
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 10/17/2007
How will libraries change, you ask? The article to which this link connects, heralds a large change, I think. http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6526916.html?nid=2673#news3 ("TCU Library to Go All Night").
Texas Christian University is going to remain open 24 HOURS A DAY (at least on weekdays) in response to student lobbying. What if other libraries do this? People talk about electronic access enabling people to do research in their pajamas. Well, if libraries are open 24x7 (like a Meijer Thrifty Acres), then people can do research on site while most people are sleeping.
Right now people know that libraries are important. But they also see that--for whatever reasons, but maybe primarily, lack of funding--libraries seem to be closed during almost as many business hours as they're open. So the message that citizens might get if and when libraries do stay open longer (or perpetually) is: "Yes, libraries are important. And we're so serious about that, that we're making it available 24x7--just like hospital and police services."
Or maybe I'm just being optimistic.
When I visit this link at the Toledo Public Library website http://www.toledolibrary.org/events/compclass.asp I am amazed at the number of computer classes my library offers to its patrons. The role of the library is adapting to the changing advances of technology and taking its patrons with it. Ten years ago I would have never expected to learn computer and internet training at my local library. In this way, the public library is serving the needs of its community by providing computer concepts to a broad spectrum of individuals. This service confirms the library as a public place in which users of different backgrounds, age, ethnicity, and belief systems can research along side of one another on neutral ground.
On a different note, Andrew mentioned the library in North Carolina with a coffee shop. I found this article from the "Progressive Librarian," I just have to share about John Buschman’s take on this very idea.
Buschman argues that the “bookstore-with-a-Starbucks” model of libraries is merely a faddish and gimmicky attempt to increase “customer” foot traffic in order to provide the quantitative data so eagerly sought by funders in thrall of managerial “accountability.” This model bypasses completely the value and nature of libraries: “To equate the turnover and stock of a good bookstore and its inventory control system and salespeople with a library demonstrates a breathtakingly shallow understanding of what a library is and does.” (p. 114). The marketing and public relations fad in librarianship also positions library users as customers: “the incentive is to continue to assess and evaluate with facile and surface methodologies and instruments to identify and document ‘quality’ and ‘successes’ that support arguments for funding and the rhetoric of repositioning of libraries within the new public philosophy information society” (p. 118).
I personally am in conflict over this article because I see the idea of placing a coffee shop or daycare in a library as a way of participating in the consumer driven age of capitalism that succeeds on some level but I also agree with Buschman that it can take away from the original value of libraries.
Sources
The Progressive Librarian; Issue number 23, Spring 2004
Dismantling the Public Sphere: Situating and Sustaining
Librarianship in the Age of the New Public Philosophy by John E. Buschman
Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004
I think the future of public libraries and their successes will depend on creativity and innovation. Personally, I would love a public library with a coffee shop inside. I love hanging around bookstores that have them and sitting in the cafe area with a coffee and a book. I love browsing with a coffee too, and I tend to stay a lot longer and have a better time. It would be so much better if I could take the books home for free! Apparently they are putting coffeeshops in some school libraries as well, and I'm all for it. Of course, all libraries would have to set limits on where you can consume food and drink, and it would probably be a good idea to protect rare or valuable books in a separate place.
Another creative idea I've seen is the (http://www.detroitadventurepass.org/index.php) Museum Adventure Pass. You just go to the library and "check out" a museum admission, and the clerk or circulation person writes you a free pass! It is great. A ton of Detroit area libraries have this program and it lets you in to almost every area museum you can think of. The program is sponsored by Macy's, so that's apparently who is paying all the museums, but it's a situation where everybody wins. Unfortunately it's only a temporary program for about a year.
Sources
Loller, Travis. (30 October 2007) High School Libraries Offer Coffee Shops, ABC News Online. Retrieved 01 Feb, 2008, from http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3795419
I have always enjoyed using public libraries. When I was younger, I used to ride my bike downtown every weekend to visit the library. It was housed in an old stone house, and had a wonderful children’s section in the basement, complete with a friendly librarian and overstuffed chairs. I would read there for hours, and often chatted with the librarian about what I should read next, before checking out books for the week. Currently, I don’t spend as much time as I would like in my local library, but have participated in my local library’s monthly book group for several years, and check out books there regularly.
As for the future, I hope dedicated bibliophiles keep using libraries as they have in the past; nothing replaces the pleasure of reading a book. But I also agree that libraries will need to become more customer service oriented and flexible regarding their hours. I found an interesting organization called Libraries for the Future that trains librarians to implement programs specially designed to make libraries a more integral part of each community, and to help librarians learn how to partner with other agencies in order to present relevant programs to the public. Services facilitated by this group include: outreach to “nontraditional library users” when they become new parents, along with early intervention services; health access services; Life long learning programs; afterschool life skills programs for children; and using literature and film and the library’s facilities to facilitate cross-cultural and intergenerational communication, to name a few. They even have a program designed to foster awareness of the Human Genome Project and its implications for individuals and communities. If anyone’s interested, Libraries for the Future’s web site is http://www.lff.org/.
Another interesting suggestion is that public libraries put together internet courses on topics of interest to patrons or relevant to the local business community—in essence, librarians can take over their traditional reference function over the internet, guide users to selected clusters of information, and eliminate for patrons the search process. Batt (1995). After all, most people (who are not librarians) don’t like searching for information. Batt (1995). And many people don’t know really how to evaluate the quality of information. Universities have already done this by structuring entire internet classes on topics, but these resources are not accessible to the general public. Batt (1995).
It seems that, in the future, librarians will have to add a whole new set of skills to the traditional ones. We will have to become excellent communicators, educators or coaches, social workers, community organizers, market analysts, budget specialists, political advocates, computer experts, and fund raisers. It’s a little overwhelming, but also exciting.
Work Cited:
Batt, Chris (1995, August 20-25). The library of the future: public Libraries and the Internet. Paper presented at the 61st IFLA General Conference - Conference Proceedings. Retrieved February 1, 2008, from http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla61/61-batc.htm.
Public libraries are an important factor in a person's life, no matter what age one is, from little children to senior citizens. I knew how important the has been in my life, it has given the information to succeed in my life, and I want to be able to give back what the library has given to me. Without the library, I do not know if I would have gained the knowledge I know today. I am grateful for all of the help that the librarians have given me throughout the years. With being employed at a public library, I know there is a lot more to it than just books. Not only is it a place to gather information, it is a place that a community can get together to form groups to help one another. The library is a place where people tutor, people have study groups, and people learn.
Changes within the library is grown throughout the years, from children's story time to teen game day. My library has children's story time for children not old even to be in school to promote the fundamentals of reading and learning. The teen area has graphic novel days about once a month to discuss the books they have read to get teens to interact with one another. We even have a bookmobile that caters to people that cannot get to the library. The bookmobile makes books more accessible to ones who want to read but are unable to get to the resources directly. Outreach services also helps with seniors and others that need help with the Internet and other reading materials. With all of the new programs that are implemented, it promotes literacy and lifelong learning.
With the digital era, computers are more important to a library then ever before. Computers are in libraries for patrons to use, as well as, using the Internet at home to access information off the databases that libraries supply. Even though computers are making the job a little easier for librarians, patrons still need the guidance from them and I do not feel that they can be replaced so easily.
Even though some libraries are in trouble because of funding, there will always be a way to help, my library gets the money through city taxes, donations, and the Friends of the Library.
Public libraries will always be an important part of my development both in school and personally. I can remember spending my summers at reading adventure programs sponsored by my local public library.
The fact that myself and like 30-40 other kids lined up to read and be read to is an awesome thing.
As the digital age progresses, i feel that public libraries will remain important to not only children, but teens and adults as well. The public library near my house recently under went an immense remodel, fitting itself with the latest technology in order to better equip itself for those needing to conduct research. I'll admit that the first time I entered the library after the remodel I found myself reminiscing about what it used to be like, wishing it was the way that it used to be, but then It hit me how great it was that with the new technology and design countless other kids would be able to experience programs like I did when I was younger.
As public libraries keep changing with technology, I believe that they will always have a place in communities.
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