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June 19, 2006
Who Do Libraries Serve?
An educated, bright, successful, well travelled, well read man shared his opinion of libraries at a dinner party this weekend. His take on library users is that they come to the library simply because they aren't financially successful enough to buy their own books or own their own computers. As bright as he is, not only did he insult a large segment of our population, but he has missed the research component of libraries entirely.
- Libraries are "keepers" of important and sometimes historic materials and information.
- Librarians are not only first rate researchers, but part of our job is to provide the public with the tools to do their own research and to make information accessible.
- Many, if not most people don't want to own every book they read or listen to, every video they watch, or cd they listen to. How inefficient space-wise and environmentally wasteful would that be, if we all did that?
- Readers of fiction often rely on librarians for recommendations. Are Barnes and Noble employees better at recommending books than librarians? I think not.
How did I respond to his ignorant comment? I didn't -- I let it go. This is my response. I want to thank him for providing me with fodder for an important blog post.
Posted by Michele at June 19, 2006 10:33 AM