Re: [LM_NET] Guttenberg

[John Grainger <kscer1234@GMAIL.COM>]

This debate on the future of libraries caused by the explosion of digital
resources is interesting and important to have, because it really is a
debate about what our communal lives will be like in the future. Many of the
tasks that we performed in person at various institutions in our communities
are now completed in a virtual community where we interface with a machine
rather than a person. The ease of the transactions overwhelms our need for
face-to-face, personal communication.

Gone from our city centers are the stores and businesses that formed the
core of our neighborhood communications. Drugstores, banks, Post Offices,
libraries, groceries and even in many cases municipal offices have been
modified to conform to personal schedules dominated by cars and computers.
We no longer congregate and converse in these places but find our outlets
through facebook and twitter, blogs and wikis. Some of this change is good
and some not so good.

As we consider the future of libraries, and the technological change driving
our culture we need to strive, as custodians of that culture, to keep the
good of the past alive as we embrace the future. Sorting that out is the
real debate.


-- 
John Grainger
Librarian
Hinsdale High School
Hinsdale NH 03431
kscer1234@gmail.com

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