A front page story in the Sunday, March 15th issue of Foster’s Daily Democrat reported on the fate of the Rollinsford Public Library. Though very pleased about the vision and insight of those residents who voted to keep the town’s fledgling library open, and happy for the volunteers who worked so hard to make this dream come true, I was most distressed by one resident’s comment that a public library is “an institution rendered obsolete by the Internet.” My question is: Have you visited a public library lately?
This fallacy that the Internet would kill the use of libraries arose in the mid-90s, but was quickly dispelled. Tech-savvy librarians rose to the challenge and wisely embraced the Internet’s potential and integrated its use into our core services. Anyone who takes the time to discover the services in today’s modern public library will find things a far cry from the dusty archives of old. The Dover Public Library began to offer free Internet to its patrons beginning in late 1996 and just over 1800 people used the World Wide Web at the library in 1997. Today we have 10 Internet workstations which registered over 30,000 public Internet sessions during 2008. (And this doesn’t even count our Wi-Fi users who also get free Internet here on their own laptops.) Our librarians teach Internet searching skills and email basics; we offer 22 specialized online databases for researchers; there are thousands of free downloadable audio books available through our website (http://www.dover.lib.nh.us/ which had over 1.7 million hits last year). And of the 18,117 patron requests we filled last year in Dover, nearly 13,000 of these were placed online through our electronic card catalog.
So, if everyone is now using the Internet for everything, even in the library, well then book circulation must be down, right? Wrong! Use me as an example: I use the Internet probably as much as the next person, but my reading habits haven’t changed in the slightest. I still read printed books as much as I ever did (although I also admit to loving my Kindle!). Media- and book-related websites also do their part to spur good old-fashioned reading, a wonderful and rewarding pastime that will never be “obsolete”. The Dover Public Library’s circulation in 1998 was 267,785 items; in 2008, we lent 298,956 items, an 11.6% increase---all in the era of the Internet! So while we still fulfill our traditional role as book providers, libraries have managed to incorporate many cutting-edge, web-based services at the same time.
The library plays an even more important role as Americans face tough economic times. Patrons are visiting their library in even greater numbers to borrow free books, CDs, and movies and to attend free programs. Many studies have shown that in economic downturns, libraries become even busier. We are certainly experiencing this phenomenon in Dover as we hear about patrons dropping Netflix subscriptions to borrow our DVDs for free; checking out our paperbacks rather than spending $8 on a one-time read; getting their music and audio downloads from our CD collections for free; or attending our no-cost Saturday afternoon first-run-movie matinees.
Libraries everywhere are meeting the educational, informational and entertainment needs of their communities by providing a broad range of services for people of all ages and backgrounds. The citizens of Rollinsford are to be congratulated for recognizing that they have put in place not just a library, but a brand new community center and a valuable and important contributor to the quality of life in their town. I urge everyone who hasn’t been to their local library lately to come and “check us out”!
Cathleen Beaudoin
Director of the Dover Public Library
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Thank you so much for this post. I wish it could be printed in the newspaper so others who read the Rollinsford library story--as I did--and became incensed at the uninformed remarks of one voter could see your rebuttal. Incidentally there was a story in today's (Monday 3/16) Boston Globe about library cutbacks in Mass. Many of the points you raise and others, such as the loss of privileges for using other libraries for Mass. libraries that no longer meet state funding standards, are discussed. I have no idea whether underfunded libraries in NH suffer such penalties. I hope the enlightened citizens of Rollinsford will come to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I love reading books and I use the Dover Library at least once a week. I was listening to doomsayers about libraries becoming obsolete and I didn't like it one bit. Thanks for providing library lovers some hope.
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