The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 17, April 25, 2004, Article 15

LIBRARIES WIRED & REBORN

  On April 22, 2004, The New York Times published an
  extensive and interesting article on the effects of the Internet
  on libraries, and the results may be surprising to many.
  The article, "Libraries Wired, and Reborn" describes how
  many libraries have become very active community centers
  as a result of the draw of Internet access, and the new funding
  provided by governments and private foundations to support
  computers and communications nationwide.

  "The transition has come quickly. In 1996, 28 percent of all
  libraries had PC's for public access to the Internet. Now, 95
  percent of libraries offer Internet access. The Gates foundation
  accelerated the trend. There are now more than 120,000
  Internet-connected PC's for public use in municipal libraries
   nationwide. Since 1998, the foundation has installed or paid
  for more than 47,000 PC's. "

  "And Internet-connected computers are clearly bringing more
  people into libraries. A year after computers are put in libraries
  that do not have them, visits rise 30 percent on the average and
  attendance typically remains higher, according to a study led by
  Andrew C. Gordon, a professor of public policy at the University
  of Washington. Over the last six years, visits to the nation's
  16,400 public libraries have increased more than 17 percent, a
  trend that can be partly attributed to the spread of computers
  with Internet access."

  "The computers are put to all manner of uses. E-mail, Mrs.
  LeBoeuf said, is perhaps most common, from messages to
  friends elsewhere in Louisiana to those to relatives in the
  military stationed in Iraq. One local woman who was adopted
  found her biological parents by searching on the Internet,
  Mrs. LeBoeuf said. But most of the uses are more workaday
  inquiries, like looking up prices on the Web before haggling
  with merchants."

  "Mrs. LeBoeuf walked through the bustling new library as
  mothers with toddlers gathered for story time, the staff
  stocked shelves with books, and people of all ages sat at
  clusters of flat-panel PC's. Computers and the Internet are
  changing libraries irrevocably, she said.

  "Books are never going away, but the future of libraries is
  much more as community centers," Mrs. LeBoeuf observed.
  "I worked here for 22 years and never thought we'd have
  something like this."

  Library Article

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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