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Libraries Enter the Modern Age 图书馆步入摩登时代 Stop by the corner of Taylor Street and Southwest 10th Avenue in downtown Portland, Ore.,1 and you can sip a cup of Starbucks latte, take a personal finance workshop, surf the Web, view an art show, listen to a jazz concert, pet a potbellied pig, buy a book—and oh, yes, borrow a book.2 This is the Multnomah County public library, after all. The American public library—that dowdy dowager of the'80s and homeless shelter of the '80s —is now a full-fledged urban "destination"3 In New York City, libraries host 30,000 children's puppet shows, readings, and magic acts a year. San Francisco's main library has 220 public computer terminals.4 And voters who used to routinely shortchange libraries are now supporting multimillion-dollar renovation projects.5 "Libraries have to meet the demands of their customers, just like any good retail operation, and the demands are changing," says Susan Kent, head librarian in Los Angeles. Still there. For years, it was predicted that libraries would become superfluous—mausoleums for books6—when so much was available online. Instead, library visits now far exceed annual attendance at sporting events, concerts, and museums combined. It turns out that the very electronic revolution that was supposed to make libraries obsolete has made them indispensable.7 "Computers have attracted all kinds of people who had never been in libraries before but want to research what camera to buy or just see what's for sale on E-Bay8," says Marilyn Mason, who oversaw the five-year $90 million renovation and expansion of the Cleveland Public Library, which reopened with Internet ports every 5 feet, a drive-up window for pickups and returns, and 30 miles of bookshelves.9 Libraries have always had a special place in American culture; the very first meeting of the Continental Congress10, in 1774, was held at one in Philadelphia. But those who run libraries have long been wary of the people served. The nation's first municipal library, in Boston, had a typical view. Predicting an onslaught of Irish immigrants who would misuse its resources, the library's 1852 report to City Council sniffed, "They think little of moral and intellectual culture."11 At the turn of the century, steel baron Andrew Carnegie12 began his project of building more than 1, 650 public libraries across the country, in a campaign to ensure the "Education & improvement of the poorer classes." Several of his libraries had auditoriums and even boxing rings, the better to attract patrons—and distract them from trade unionism. New arrivals. Carnegie wanted immigrant visitors to his libraries to do what he felt he'd done: pull themselves up through study and hard work.13 Indeed, a touchstone of the immigrant experience in 20th-century America has been the library, where newcomers have taught themselves English and learned about their adopted culture.14 That trend is still alive and well, though today they are as likely to use a computer as read a book. In New Haven, librarians teach Central American laborers to use the Internet and write resumes on computers. While heartening, these increasing demands have stretched budgets and crowded older libraries.15 Twenty years ago, L.A. offered books in Romance languages, German, and Greek. In 1998, the city library system bought books, videos, cassettes, and software in 100 languages. In San Jose, Calif., where circulation has soared16 55 percent in three years, library director Jane Light struggles to choose among requests for computer how-to books in a dozen languages; English tapes for Vietnamese speakers; and bilingual children's books that Russian parents can share with their English-speaking kids. Even as technology lightens some of this
load, recent convention of the American Library Association showed that
it brings complications, too. Electronic books that can be downloaded
on demand will offer relief for cramped stacks, but publishers have
yet to decide how to charge libraries for the service.17
And while more than 80 percent of libraries offer Internet access, the
debate over whether to install antipornography filters has yet to be
settled, which gets at a very old-fashioned conflict between the library's
role as caretaker of books and server of the public.18
As Ginnie Cooper, director of libraries for Multnomah County, put it,
"It's more important to help people find what they want on the Net rather
than decide what they can't see." |