This interesting article raises the question, "What is the role of a public library in today's environment?" Excerpts:

As recently as a century ago …books were considerably more expensive and harder to obtain … Today, however, large bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders bombard readers with an enormous range of inexpensive choices. An even greater selection is available online … amazon … Google and Microsoft are promising to make enormous amounts of out-of-copyright material available …

… The bottom line is that it has never been easier or cheaper to read a book, and the costs of reading probably will do nothing but drop further.

This is absolutely true for me at least. I used to be the most avid user of the public library and checked out huge amounts of books, forgot to take them back on time, and paid huge fines...
But now adays I just take my money directly to Barnes and Noble and I have long ago run out of bookcases to store all my books. My house is actually better stocked in books than the middle school library where I work!

But I do not think I'm in the majority. The librarian who works with me always has books on hold at the public library and rarely if ever buys a book. She can't see why she would waste her money on something she will read in a few hours and then be on to the next one.

I still borrow a few books from my library every week.

I'm sure you realized I'd chime in here eventually! We've talked about this before, about how the role of libraries is changing in our society.

I can go on and on, but it's late and I'm tired, so for now I'll just say this: the public library serves many varied roles. At this point in time, those roles are shifting towards a community center type role. Many public libraries are the only venue people in poverty have for accessing computers and books and other venues of information and culture. Although middle and upper class people can access those things in myriad other ways, there are many who cannot.

My own branch of the library (and this is not the whole system, mind you, but my own branch) serves as a computer center, offers homework help and room for tutoring, holds GED classes, provides a link for many customers to get health screenings and donate blood, has tech training where people can learn everything from how to hold the mouse to how to build a resume or write a business plan.

Do we own the classic books? You bet. Are they always on the shelf? No, because they're still being requested by High School students who are required to read them. As long as people are requesting the books, we'll try to have them available. We also provide access to the whole system's collection and, through interlibrary loan, to obscure books owned only by academic libraries across the country.

The book is not going to go away. The Public Library is not going to go away. Will they both change, of course.

Oh yea, and speaking of changing media, through my library's website, our customers can download e-books, audio books and even movies - all part of what their public library provides for them. We also offer chat reference services and online homework help with real people. Just like retail, you can now access the public library 24/7.

I don't buy books. My husband, however, continues to purchase. Some of us need to own things, others of us just want to experience them briefly and then move on.

I'm rambling, so I'll sign off for now.

Ta!

I'm with you, TrossL. I just can't remember to take back those books and end up spending more on the fees that I would have for the books. With paperbacks so cheap these days, I don't feel too bad.

You know . . . many libraries take used books as donations and sell them to raise funds for the library. If your shelves are overloaded, you might want to weed some of those older things out and share!

I used to use my local library several times a week, but I've not been in a library now for a year or more. There are three main reasons:

1. My wife and I used to be avid readers and usually got through our entire allocation of books (we were restricted to three each in those days) in less than a week. But then we bought a television...

2. I used to use the library a great deal for research; then I discovered the internet...

3. I have moved and my nearest library is now ten miles away, instead of being about half a mile.

It's a shame in a way as I used to enjoy visiting the library but the enjoyment of a visit is not, in itself, sufficient a draw for me in my present busy life.

I used to own a lot of books and had a home office and the bookshelves to hold them all. When I moved to a small apartment nearly three years ago, I donated most of my books to the local library and kept just a few that I couldn't bear to part with. Now I'm a library patron again and so thankful it's there. I've tried e-books, but -- probably because of my age -- I simply prefer the feel of a book in my hands, the familiar turning of the pages, seeing it lying on my table with a bookmark in place, and sitting or lying down in comfort to get lost in a book. I love the Internet, but when I read for pleasure, I like a good old-fashioned book much better than a monitor. It's probably a dying generation who feel that way, though. And that's why all those other draws are available at the libraries now, as CW shared with us. I do believe keeping libraries alive is extremely important.

Like Richard I was once a library-goer. Like Richard I no longer go. Unlike Richard I haven't moved house. However it is now quite a few years since my local library (a mere few minutes stroll) was demolished. The nearest library to me now is an hour and a half round trip-not counting the time to choose a book.

So now I buy all my books. Most of them delivered to my door from amazon or play.

When I was younger, I went to my local library all of the time, often checking out the same books. As I got older, and had money of my own to spend, I started buying books. Part of this is there are quite a few books I like to read multiple times. Often, I decide late at night I want something to read, and I can't very well go to the library at this time. This necessitates me having a large personal library.

Still, I've started frequently going to my local library recently, so hopefully I will continue to do so and stop spending so much money on books.

We have sooo many books. We really should donate some of them to the library, CW. Used book stores just draw us in...even when we were in Paris, we trudged all over looking at books written in French!

Today there was an interesting article about a $2.3 million renovation at a public library near us. CW, when you come to the Wordcraft Gathering, you might want to visit it. They are buying plasma TVs, putting in a "reading bar" and a fountain of lights and sounds. The project's goal is to attract the youth, and it is supposed to be very revolutionary. They are borrowing concepts from children's museums by making the library more interactive. The toddlers will enjoy an area that includes keys to open discovery boxes and letters that match leaves on a fabric vine. There is another area called Mac's Garden that will include a padded terrain for babies. And the teens planned their floor which will include the plasma TVs, egg chairs, the reading bar, and a small stage. Sounds great!

Kalleh, I would most definitely like to see that library if we can, and if it is complete and open!

This is definitely the trend of libraries. We've talked here before about "the third place" and how, for many people, their third place to be, after home and work is some kind of hang-out. Bookstores that have coffee shops, coffee shops in themselves, churches, recreation centers, and libraries all fall into that role.

RE - you say that the visit alone isn't worth the trip, and that is the case for many people of today. We're all so busy doing what we need to do that when we have time we are looking for some sort of "experience" when we go somewhere. That explains, in part, why the library near K is remodelling in this fashion. It is all about creating an experience. Libraries are now talking about being Destination places where you'd want to visit and stay a while rather than being convenience stores like we've been for the last few decades.

When I was young I was a regular at my local library. It was situated in the wing to the right of Charlton House. It had many thousands of books and was the best library in the area. The council decided to close it some thirty years ago. There was a local outcry and they reluctantly reopened it some five years later in the opposite wing and in much smaller premises. Most of the stock of books had been disposed of and it went from the best to one of the worst in the neighbourhood. Because of the poor choice I gave up using it.