Thing 15

Unfortunately, I think that libraries are conceptually moving the way of newspapers in this country. As our newspapers disappear, they are being replaced by a sort of citizen's vigilante reportage, if you will, and what we are missing is the career reporter's in-depth journalistic research, especially in areas where only a reporter could go. This was the heart and soul of our free press and I believe we will begin to see libraries echo this trend. When you begin removing librarians and books from libraries beyond a certain point for whatever reasons, be it economic necessity or because the newest online technologies can mimick a librarian's reference skills to some degree, you have once again taken the soul from these institutions. There is no replacement for the neighborhood librarian reading to preschoolers or passionately recommending a book to a teenager. I venture to say that children will not have the same life enriching exchanges with an online library avatar in the same way they once did with a living community librarian. When the virtual library comes to dominate the library world, we will all lose more than we know. And that's my soapbox for the day!