by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: February 14, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2008

The present library system occupies a place of honor among the Internet community. The two enhance each other and are not antagonistic. One could very well ask, how could the Internet exist without libraries; and, conversely, how could the present library operate without the Internet? While it is doubtful this arrangement was made in heaven, neither have any difficulty arguing over it and securing facts for or against.

Libraries are still concerned with the written word, the preservation of important documents and books, and are keepers of all that is good and wholesome about our knowledge systems. This is still true today. They have expanded their services and upgraded outmoded systems and are in the business of public education for keeps.

True, there have been some changes and some jobs have been lost and some small libraries have closed since the Internet came into effect, but innovation cannot happen without a few dire consequences to the way things are done; and libraries are subject to whatever ails their community, their country, their world in the same way all others organizations are.

The internet has enhanced library systems by making them less cumbersome and more efficient. Even very small libraries are now privileged to almost instantaneous knowledge and primary sources and whatever else that's needed at any given time. Once getting information from there to here took days. A telephone call or a letter and then the request for information was gathered and sent out through the mail. Now, the internet and email and other immediate retrieval systems has made this obsolete.

Libraries are the lifeblood of the community or school they serve. They instruct, they entertain, they help, they explain, they are there for better communications for people everywhere. With all these qualifications each one has a unique personality.

The all inclusive library, the one most of us belong to and help support and learn from, is the community library. They support the community and the community supports them. Whatever has an impact on one has an impact on the other. If it were not for their free Internet service, many otherwise capable people would not have this access.

University and school libraries are concerned with education but education as related to their particular expertise. Their focus is on doing the best job they know how to see that what their students need in they way of help and research they will find in their library.

In our country two large libraries come to my mind when I think of our seat of government in Washington D. C. The Library of Congress and The Folger's Library. One is concerned with Congress and the law making systems nationwide and the other is all about Shakespeare. In fact the Folger Library probably knows about Shakespeare than any other place in this country.

Libraries and book collections have always been in our thinking. The first library collection was in 1920 and was books collected from English estates. Although the first library never materialized, the idea for them was kept alive. With determination like this how could the Internet deter such tough minded citizenry?

Ideas on how to better spread the word has always been the unwritten motto of libraries, how then could the Internet be seen as anything as a help along the way?

Source:
Carruth, Gorton, What Happened When: A chronology of Life and Events in America, Signet, PP 1620

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