There’s more data coming in on the extent to which low income Americans depend on public institutions for broadband. A new report released by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says that 44 percent of those living below the poverty level access e-mail and the Web via their local public library. And nearly a third of Americans over 14 used library Internet services in 2009. That’s about 77 million people.

via Almost half of poor Americans go to the library for Internet.

With the goal of one day offering 150 titles for checkout across its 38 locations, Toronto’s public library has taken steps toward building a video game collection – but figures it needs $300,000 to make it happen.

And interestingly enough, from the comments:

Stanford University’s library has had games for a long time – there are even consoles you can play them on. All the current gen systems are there, as well as a few Atari.

Don’t believe me? Try searching [socrates.stanford.edu] for anything from Mass Effect 2 (Call number ZMS 2523) to Katamari Damacy (ZMS 1252). Final Fantasy XIII is still on order.

This is the perks of having a professor who is a video game historian on your faculty.

Library Seeks $300K in Funding for Video Game Collection – Culture – Kotaku.

Tame The Web » Blog Archive » Thanks Library of Virginia & Public Library Directors.

]]> http://micheleogle.net/2009/11/tame-the-web-%c2%bb-blog-archive-%c2%bb-thanks-library-of-virginia-public-library-directors/feed/ 0 http://micheleogle.net/2009/11/things-that-keep-us-up-at-night-1012009-school-library-journal/ http://micheleogle.net/2009/11/things-that-keep-us-up-at-night-1012009-school-library-journal/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:36:55 +0000 Michele http://micheleogle.net/?p=146

Libraries were created under an economic model where it was more cost-effective to buy something a book, a video, a magazine and share it than to buy a copy for everyone. And for centuries this model has given libraries their value. But for the first time in history we are moving from a time of information scarcity to one of information abundance. Can we define why libraries are necessary when information is ubiquitous, more scalable, far more convenient, and often “free” online?

via Things That Keep Us Up at Night – 10/1/2009 – School Library Journal.

The budget cuts come at a time when libraries around the country are rethinking their role in the 21st century. National library associations are redefining libraries beyond the book depositories and lenders of the past. Modern libraries also are digital centers where information is exchanged and Internet is available to those who don’t have it at home. They are community hubs where people can learn skills they need in the digital era. They are evolving beyond quiet reading spaces to bustling places of public discourse. They are striving to make information available 24-7, not just during library hours.

via Are local libraries in process of checking out?: Anchorage | adn.com.

[1] Print is not dead, but the business model is. If you really want to insist on print being dead, send over your library’s storytelling program where the librarian reads a kid’s book from a Kindle or Nook or Iliad or whatever. And if the kids react to the screen the same way they do to a print book, then I will believe it.

via Why I Support Library 101 (And so should you) | LISNews.

I think that the shifts we are now beginning to experience are going to be much more disruptive than we expect. I don’t think that we can take for granted that any current information-oriented profession is going to be around in the new paradigm. I think it’s a safer bet to assume that most of us in information-oriented jobs either are going to be replaced by something new or will see our professions so radically transformed that we may need to give them new labels.

via The (un)certainty of professional persistence – Dangerously Irrelevant.

When books, magazines, newspapers, reference materials, music, movies, and other traditional library content all go electronic and online – deliverable on demand – what does that mean for the future of the physical spaces known as “libraries?” Mike Eisenberg said to me that we already should be taking yellow caution tape and blocking off the entire non-fiction and reference sections of our libraries. As content becomes digital and no longer needs to be stored on a shelf, with what do we replace that now-unused floor space: couches, tables, and cozy chairs? computer stations? meeting space? And if we head in these directions, what will distinguish libraries from other institutions such as coffee shops, community centers, and Internet cafes?

via 10 questions about books, libraries, librarians, and schools – Dangerously Irrelevant.