Tales of a Librarian

A colleague of mine pointed out this article in the Herald online yesterday which may be of some interest. It is about the reinvention of the Gorbals Library and how it has embraced technology to enhance its services. I have to admit, I have a friend who recently moved to the gorbals so i have seen the library and it does look impressive, very modern with lots of clean cut lines and shiny glass!

Just been reading this survey done by the ALA (so it’s American based) about usage of public libraries and people’s general attitudes towards them. Walt Crawford, once again, covers the main points made by the post very well, so I will not repeat those here.

One finding that I did find particularly interesting, however, was that when asked whether they felt libraries would no longer exist in the future because everything would be available on the internet, or whether they felt that libraries would still be needed despite electronic information, a whopping 92% felt that they would still be needed.

Pretty good news for us librarians, I guess…

The whole report actually paints a very rosy picture of the way the public views the library and I have to wonder where they found the participants because I am sure that most people do not see the library as quite so important (over a third put them at the top of their list of public services, above such things as schools, parks and roads…. hmmm, i like libraries, but more than schools?). 32% also ranked librarians as the most valuable professionals in their communities - now thats just crazy talk - don’t think i would want a librarian operating on me or rescuing me from a house fire!!!

But have a look over the results for yourself and see what you think…

Last night’s gadget show had an interesting feature where one of the presenters had to go 24 hours without technology i.e. mobile phones, PDA, email, computers etc. As part of his normal day he was required to do some research for a piece he was working on without the use of technology, i.e. the ‘old fashioned way’ - and to where did he turn??? Yup, you guessed it, the library. I’m not sure whether I am pleased that we are considered to be ‘above’ such things as the computer or whether to be slightly put out that the library was stereotyped as being somewhere without technology!! I’m thinking the latter…

But all was not bad, there was in fact a brief mention of how even libraries today are becoming more technologically advanced (a shock revelation it would seem) and there was a shot with a couple of unused computers sitting idle in the background. Hmmm.

No sign of a card catalogue however! And in case you are wondering, he got his research completed not by searching the online opac but by asking the librarian, who conveniently knew off the top of her head exactly which book contained the answer to his question (stats on internet access in households in the UK). Again, I am not sure whether this presents the image of us being all-knowing and great, or musty old computer-phobes.

In addition to this, it is worth noting just how much time it took him to organise the simplest things and conduct the simplest of tasks, which made me want to go over to my fantastic new computer and give it a really big hug. Bliss!