NEWS: The Death of Libraries and the Birth of the Free Media Hub

CULTURE: The Death of Libraries and the Birth of the Free Media Hub

Libraries are amazing, but I rarely enter one. The Library in downtown Portland is a wonderful building with amazing marble stairs; fine browsing rooms, and large areas for browsing and sitting down.

At one point, a Starbucks flourished in the fiction section.

We hope that our taxes go to libraries more than they already do. We all hope that funds for libraries go toward books, salaries, community education, upkeep, and restoration. As David Harsanyi of the Denver Post is finding out, intrusions like indoor Starbucks are merely signifiers of a much larger issue facing libraries in an age of instant information. Libraries, for all intents and purposes, have become Blockbuster Videos and Virgin Megastores.

How do make millennial old institutions like libraries “relevant”? To whom?

I went to my local library the other day. It was full of CDs by bands that you're not quite sure about, rather than those you'll buy (or own) without hesitating. Thus I got to listen to loads of new sounds. I'll definately be going back.

Not sure if they can ever be relevant to everyone, when you only have a set budget.

as a kid i practically lived in the library but these days i sort of prefer to own my books, i guess that's mainly because i only read in english these days. (i'm dutch)

Our downtown library is one of those magnificent marble buildings like they don't build any more. Unfortunately it's become a congregation point for homeless guys. After years of them urinating on themselves, it smells. I just go to Borders now.

I go to the library at least one a week. I'll get a bunch of novels or videos and that my entertainment for the week. If you are in NY and DON'T visit the Grand Army Plaza branch or the 42nd St. Branches you are just plain nuts!

I go to the library every week. Borrow about 10 books and im back there in a few days time.
I love librarys, the smell of them makes me feel safe...

Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder considers public libraries to be part of the whole piracy conspiracy, taking the food from the mouths of the AAP, RIAA, and the MPAA. She heads the AAP now.

"We," says Schroeder, "have a very serious issue with librarians."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36584-2001Feb7?language=printer

She slips up, among other times, when she suggests that the authors in academic journals get paid by the publishers. Hah!

I don't think they need to, or should, be "relevant". Libraries should continue to be libraries -- I.E. quiet places filled with books. The government should continue to fund that for that section of the population which enjoys it, because it's a service with demonstrable benefits.

It should not be run for profit or change to suit whims.

Libraries should be libraries.

I agree wholeheartedly with Keith. Libraries, in my opinion, should not concern themselves wth pop culture, only with things that have some historical or lasting cultural value. They should have music, yes, but Mozart, Armstrong, Glass, not Ashlee Simpson (isn't she a cartoon character?). They should have films (films), not movies. And books should always be the focus. They don't have to appeal to anyone in particular, they should simply be the repositories of or collected knowledge and wisdom. Do that and the people will come.

The San Francisco public library was one of those classical buildings, with endless stacks in the bback. I used to spend hours there. But the homeless on the streets and inside drove me out. When they built the new library, completely computerized the catalog, dumpe the card catalogs, and dumped thousands of books, closed what stacks they had to the public they totally ruined the library. For a long time you had to give a slip to a librarian and they would go back in the stacks which you were forbidden to enter.

Its noisy, cold, ultramodern full of homeless, (the bathrooms are a terror, best to be avoided) and you have to run a gaunlet of thuggish looking people on the streets to enter the library.

Right, but the issue at stake is whether or not libraries can afford to continue to be libraries if they can't show any public utility. If you have a big building full of books and no circulation, you're just wasting the taxpayer's money, but if you have a library with lots of other things in high circulation, you'll probably get a decent budget allowance for the next year.

I think that a different interface to their online catalogs might help. How useful would it be if, when looking for the call number of some book, DVD, or CD, you had an Amazon-style box at the bottom of your screen saying "Other patrons who checked this out [and weren't illiterate cretins] also liked [a list of related books, DVDs, etc.]". It might get people to branch out from their current interests and increase circulation.

I love the liberry , thats where you can find hot sexy liberrians like Salty.

Forgot the media hub, just start a public awareness campaign of posters with pin-up shots of naughty librarians.

Things change. Libraries are repositories for knowledge. This means media, and these days that means video and audio, which means CDs and DVDs. Implying they should be reserved for books is myopic nostalgia.

You're witnessing progress, people. Don't fight it.

It's not simply a process of updating the media for present demands- libraries didn't carry exclusively bodice-rippers, frontier stories, and sheet music before digital media arrived. The things that are falling by the wayside, like actual real non-fiction books, are things that libraries have always carried, and are now being replaced by entertainment.

I think you'll find there are more reference materials than ever, but they're not in book form. They're digital; searchable by atomic content, not card catalog, instantly retrievable and faster to cross reference. This is good.

I know it's good, but the article is about entertainment options taking over libraries, not libraries finally catching up to the internet in terms of data organization.

Who needs DVDs when you have sexy librarians. My sexual awakening was at the local library. The smell of books, the whispering, and a smart, sexy woman (in glasses) who seemed to know everything...

Believe me, most people working in libraries don't hate people who check out primarliy DVDs and CDs and turn them into clerks. Library workers still primarily hate the fucks who bitch and moan over a bad check in, or late fees.

Fuck you, you retarded ass. Libraries are not dying. I work at a library, and I can tell you we do a lot more than just rent out videos and CDs. Yes, we're not just books anymore. Libraries adapt. A lot of our job is handling information. We help people find out what they want to know. We provide books, CDs, videos, maps, and internet access free of charge, which is especially important to people who don't have a lot of money.

Obviously you don't ever go to libraries, as demonstrated by your absolute lack of knowledge about anything to do with them.

:is a Denver resident:

this is all true

one thing people overlook about libraries is that they are public institutions, similar to parks, where information is housed for the people to use and people have the right to gather and share that information. as an institution as old as the united states itself, it has a vested interest in keeping information and media free and available, as well as protecting our rights of expression and assembly, which companies like borders or blockbuster only can care about when it affects their bottom line.

I think you need to work on your communication skills.

first quick glance i thought this thread was announcing the death of Liberace.

Wanna see a picture of Liberace dressed up like a vagina?

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

I knew you did!