5 ms·

In many towns libraries serve as a default community center. I get daily emails with all of the events happening in my small town and I would say at least half

by mrj 15y ago

In many towns libraries serve as a default community center. I get daily emails with all of the events happening in my small town and I would say at least half of those are at the local library. What you're saying is true, of course. But that over looks a great deal of value that libraries provide -- it's more than just bound paper on shelves.

tommorris 15y ago
Sure, that's definitely what the government bureaucrats call "value-add". But the problem is that sometimes the value-add seems to be the only thing they focus on. Decisions about library policy are done on the basis of the community stuff, how it'll affect parents with kids who use the library for story time, and the views of readers get neglected. I went to my local library today, and they've removed yet more non-fiction shelving to move the registrar of births, marriages and deaths into the library. The library seems willing to accomodate just about anything... except books, which seem to be the primary function. The library in the next town over has a monthly "meet animals" day, where someone brings in a ferret or a snake or something and kids get to see and pet an animal. Which is fine, and I haven't got a problem with that. The fact that every time I go in there, they have less books makes me all the less likely to want to scream and shout when the barbarians in pinstripes come to tear the place down and "streamline operations" and so on. Because of all the feel-good community stuff libraries have to do in order to remain "relevant", the actual point of the library gets slowly undermined and weakened. I don't blame the libraries: they are only doing what they need to do to survive. I blame the politicians and the public for undervaluing libraries.
- king_jester 15y ago
  > Because of all the feel-good community stuff libraries have to do in order to remain "relevant", the actual point of the library gets slowly undermined and weakened. I want to point out that the actual point of a library is to do all of the things you mention. A community's library isn't just a repository of books, it's an integral public meeting space that facilitates access to information and helps with the needs of its community. Running programs for kids (in addition to ones for teens, adults, the poor, etc.) and providing access to civic information are all fair game for a public library. Libraries balance the needs of their communities, and in your community it sounds like there is a big demand for services other than books.
  - tommorris 15y ago
    In my area, we have one of the largest spends on libraries in the country. But unlike a lot of other groups, those of us who just turn up and want to borrow books seem to not get much say in library policy. I don't think any of the community stuff is bad, and the local government needs to provide services for people, but that's not an excuse for reducing the books on the shelves, making inter-library loan services worse and so on. Libraries serve a lot of constituencies, but they sometimes forget that readers are one of them.
  - _dps 15y ago
    I ask this as an honest question so please forgive the directness: in what sense, aside from the parent comment's "trying to remain relevant" theory, is the community-building the "actual point of a library"? I completely agree that libraries have evolved into this role in the US (though my experience in Europe is drastically different). I'm just wondering if there's any sort of organized policy behind the "Library as community center" phenomenon.

by mrj 15y ago

tommorris 15y ago

Sure, that's definitely what the government bureaucrats call "value-add". But the problem is that sometimes the value-add seems to be the only thing they focus on. Decisions about library policy are done on the basis of the community stuff, how it'll affect parents with kids who use the library for story time, and the views of readers get neglected. I went to my local library today, and they've removed yet more non-fiction shelving to move the registrar of births, marriages and deaths into the library. The library seems willing to accomodate just about anything... except books, which seem to be the primary function. The library in the next town over has a monthly "meet animals" day, where someone brings in a ferret or a snake or something and kids get to see and pet an animal. Which is fine, and I haven't got a problem with that. The fact that every time I go in there, they have less books makes me all the less likely to want to scream and shout when the barbarians in pinstripes come to tear the place down and "streamline operations" and so on. Because of all the feel-good community stuff libraries have to do in order to remain "relevant", the actual point of the library gets slowly undermined and weakened. I don't blame the libraries: they are only doing what they need to do to survive. I blame the politicians and the public for undervaluing libraries.

king_jester 15y ago
> Because of all the feel-good community stuff libraries have to do in order to remain "relevant", the actual point of the library gets slowly undermined and weakened. I want to point out that the actual point of a library is to do all of the things you mention. A community's library isn't just a repository of books, it's an integral public meeting space that facilitates access to information and helps with the needs of its community. Running programs for kids (in addition to ones for teens, adults, the poor, etc.) and providing access to civic information are all fair game for a public library. Libraries balance the needs of their communities, and in your community it sounds like there is a big demand for services other than books.
- tommorris 15y ago
  In my area, we have one of the largest spends on libraries in the country. But unlike a lot of other groups, those of us who just turn up and want to borrow books seem to not get much say in library policy. I don't think any of the community stuff is bad, and the local government needs to provide services for people, but that's not an excuse for reducing the books on the shelves, making inter-library loan services worse and so on. Libraries serve a lot of constituencies, but they sometimes forget that readers are one of them.
- _dps 15y ago
  I ask this as an honest question so please forgive the directness: in what sense, aside from the parent comment's "trying to remain relevant" theory, is the community-building the "actual point of a library"? I completely agree that libraries have evolved into this role in the US (though my experience in Europe is drastically different). I'm just wondering if there's any sort of organized policy behind the "Library as community center" phenomenon.