Thinking about the future of libraries...

Reading several suggested trend-loving and elitist articles has not really changed my views on the future of libraries. I still feel that the future of libraries and librarians is with those who need us. That's certainly an obvious statement in any field, but technologies have changed the definition of the "who need us" part of the statement.

We will have a roll in developing reading in children for a long time ,and even in affluent communities story times and children's programming will serve a need. Parents will continue to need us in the foreseeable future to share our skills in sharing children's literature and teaching pre-reading activities. Technology hasn't changed this.

Adults are a different story though. Ask any information librarian how much the use of books, particularly reference books has diminished. How much do we use reference books for our personal information gathering? I know my use is considerably diminished. This doesn't mean though that there are not people who need us. There are many customers in the poorer communities who do not have the technological skills to find the information they need or the money to stay current in the purchase of technology. These are the people who need us - now more than ever. We are needed by the entry level job-hunter looking for a job in a a food service who is told he must apply on line or the construction worker who is told he must present a resume.

Just as once a librarian's skill might help an unfamiliar customer through the intricacies of the Reader's Guide, we will always be needed by those same customers to help select the right keywords to free their information from the technological thicket. Did we ever expect in the "good old days" to run out of people who needed what we called "Library education"?

In a branch where a greater percentage of the population lives in poverty you can see the library filling its roll as a communtiy center among the homeless and the technologically deprived more than it was in the pre-computer age. Many customers come to the library regularly now who would never have come then, and we have a greater chance to make a difference in their lives. Isn't this what we have always wanted? Haven't we always wanted the food service employee or that construction worker to tell us that we helped them get jobs? Isn't that why we chose this job?