Tag: libraries
Why We Still Need Public Libraries

Why We Still Need Public Libraries

Younger Americans can hardly imagine a time when you had to visit a library to research the population of Phoenix in 1980. Google now does that in seconds.

Entire books are downloaded to tablets in minutes. Classics from Moby-Dick to Shakespeare’s tragedies come virtually free. A project called the Digital Public Library of America now seeks to digitalize the entire Library of Congress and university collections.

And less of what we consider information comes in word form. Videos now explain everything from bicycle repair to how the Federal Reserve works.

So let’s ask: Do we still need public libraries, with their miles of dusty bookshelves, decimated reference departments, and rules of decorum? Yes.

We still want to read, study, and communicate in a non-distracting environment. And we still need what urbanologists call “third places” — that is, public spaces other than work and home. Public libraries are third places, along with cafes and old-fashioned bookstores.

It was predicted that the move to online communication would enable us to make a living on an isolated farm or private mountaintop. Many can, but the human need to mix with others of the species remains strong.

Herein lies the paradox: The more we can work at home the more we need third places for getting out in the world. That’s why many of the most digitally connected Americans are moving into downtown areas. That’s why Starbucks is so crowded, even in the suburbs.

And that’s why public libraries are taking on a new importance in economic development. Older public libraries in sad urban cores are seeing tables once dominated by those with no other place to go being occupied by 20- and 30-year-olds who’ve just moved downtown.

Gloversville, New York, has suffered hard times since the glove business collapsed in the 1950s. But it still has a glorious Beaux Arts library, built in 1904 with Andrew Carnegie’s money. The town is now renovating this grand building as a magnet for downtown revival.

One thing that made public libraries of yore less-than-ideal third places was they discouraged lively conversation. Today’s libraries have loosened up on that considerably.

“When my kids were little, I would not have even thought to bring them to the library,” one librarian told me.

Now there are cellphones going off and children running around.

Does anything go these days? “Yes and no,” she responded.

“We don’t want to stifle people too much when they’re talking and communicating,” she said, “but there have been times when I’ve had to stop someone using bad language close to the youth department.”

Libraries have expanded their offerings well beyond the printed word. Many offer computer and literacy training, meeting rooms, and much more.

The spectacular Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library in Kansas features an art gallery, cafe, and “booktique” selling used books, jewelry, and various gift items. I could have spent a week there.

Many older Americans miss the starchy grandeur of the old library experience — the venerable wood tables, mosaic floors, and hushed stacks. Should they just get over it?

John Palfrey, a founder of the Digital Public Library of America, warns against nostalgia for the public libraries of yesteryear. “Libraries must create a new nostalgia,” he wrote.

I don’t know. What’s wrong with nostalgia the way it used to be? The library’s retro feel fits right in with the downtown vibe. In any case, libraries can offer both old-fashioned reading rooms for traditionalists and (enclosed) rooms for video gamesters.

Public libraries are evolving with the times. One hopes that they will keep what’s nice while searching for the new.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com. 

Photo: Samantha Marx via Flickr

Lincoln Library Workers Strive To Put More Documents About Abe Online

Lincoln Library Workers Strive To Put More Documents About Abe Online

By Joan Cary, Chicago Tribune (TNS)

Every morning, Daniel Stowell reads the newspaper on his iPad over breakfast.

But it isn’t the current day’s paper. It’s an edition from 150 years ago to the day of the four-page Daily National Republican.

Not only is the old news of personal interest to the historian and author, it gives Stowell a head start on his workday. He is director and editor of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., and he and his co-workers have a goal: employ modern technology to make historical Lincoln documents accessible to anyone with a computer.

They intend to give the world via the Internet 150,000-plus transcriptions and images of papers written by or to Illinois’ favorite son. And they’ve posted about 100,000 legal documents from Lincoln’s law career online. They also are chronicling as many day-to-day events as possible in Lincoln’s life, such as the ones Stowell finds combing through an online archive of the Daily National Republican.

And they are creating apps that allow museum visitors to interact and learn more about the 16th president.

“Millions of people around the world are fascinated by Abraham Lincoln,” said Stowell, who also is director of the museum and library’s Center For Digital Initiatives. “We can never predict with complete accuracy how people are going to connect with him, but they do.”

Stowell’s staff thinks that even documents pertaining to Lincoln’s death and those written in the present will help people connect to who Lincoln was in life.

The citizenlincoln.org website allows researchers to see and read the condolence letters sent by leaders from around the world after Lincoln’s assassination 150 years ago this April, as well as read what the modern counterparts of those people think of Lincoln today.

For example, there’s a letter of sympathy from Queen Victoria to Mary Todd Lincoln on April 29, 1865, offering condolences over “so terrible a calamity,” and one that Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, wrote to the museum in October, in which he said how he drew strength from Lincoln. He noted that streets in Israel are named after Lincoln, who, according to the prime minister, had a desire to visit Jerusalem that went unfulfilled.

As for the president’s time on earth, thelincolnlog.org offers details from the days in the life of Lincoln. So far, more than 7,100 days are documented, most from his adult life.

Wondering what Lincoln was doing on your birthday — or any date — many years ago? On March 9, 1844, he paid 25 cents for a pair of woolen mittens. On Feb. 9, 1864, he was sitting for several portraits, including the one used for the $5 bill. Not historic enough? Read the details of Nov. 19, 1863, the day he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Museumgoers, whose numbers average 300,000 a year, according to education director Michelle Poe, will also benefit from the efforts of Stowell and his staff.

For example, the museum’s newest website, mylincoln.org, will be launched in April. Instead of telling museum visitors to turn off their smartphones at the door, it encourages them to turn them on and use them. With a phone or tablet they will be able to take part in age-appropriate museum scavenger hunts and have access to enhanced information about the displays.

“I definitely see digitalization and Internet as a way to reach a young audience, but the idea is to reach out to museumgoers and Lincoln enthusiasts of all ages,” Stowell said.

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln office, in a quiet place above the library, houses a long-term project of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Lincoln Library and Museum.

There, the state’s Lincoln documents are divided into three categories: 20,000-plus nonlegal papers from Lincoln’s birth to his inauguration in 1861, 97,000 legal documents from when Lincoln practiced law in Illinois courts, and 78,000 presidential papers from the inauguration until Lincoln’s assassination.

These documents already are or will be accessible on papersofabrahamlincoln.org. And Stowell estimates about 50,000 more papers exist.

Two of Stowell’s staff members work in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., still searching for more of those documents, and seven full-time Springfield employees scan, research and contextualize documents the library has acquired, he said.

Stowell said the Papers of Abraham Lincoln is a $720,000 project this fiscal year. Not quite half of that comes from the state. The rest comes from federal funding and private donations. He said state funding is down about 10 percent in recent years, and he expects there may be more cuts.

Digitizing will physically preserve these tender papers and allow people to access them without leaving home, he said. But he and his staff also want to provide the information necessary for readers to understand what they read by linking letters that are related, identifying people and events, and providing historical context.

Stowell said they have digitized documents scattered in more than 400 repositories and more than 200 private collections worldwide. But he knows there are many more in private hands and more documents, particularly from the Lincoln presidency, to still uncover.

Recently, Daniel Weinberg, owner of The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, alerted Stowell to a collection of 45 Lincoln documents in the shop. Stowell came to Chicago with his high-end scanner to find that only eight were already in the state database. The trip was well worth it.

“I’ve seen a lot of Lincoln signatures,” said Weinberg, who has been in the shop since 1971. “Are there significant Lincolns still out there to be found? I can’t say there aren’t because every once in awhile something significant does come out.”

Weinberg said he is always willing to share any newly discovered documents with the state for the sake of research and history, and he does not understand why some others may choose not to share.

“I find it great fun,” Weinberg said. “This man was a true genius. As a person, his moralities, his ethics, organization skills, use of mathematics. He’s iconic. Why would we not want people worldwide to be able to learn more from him?”

(c) 2015 Chicago Tribune, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Photo: Daniel Stowell, director and editor of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., looks February 4, 2015, at a letter written to the 16th president in 1861 by Queen Victoria about the death of her mother. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Students, Faculty Decry Penn Plan To Cut Math And Science Libraries

Students, Faculty Decry Penn Plan To Cut Math And Science Libraries

By Susan Snyder, The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — A plan by the University of Pennsylvania to cut back on two of its branch libraries — one for engineering and the other for math, physics, and astronomy — has yielded an outcry from students and professors who say the books are critical to their studies and research.

Both libraries are housed within the same campus buildings as their departments, and are heavily used by undergraduates and graduate students alike. Mathematics students, in particular, said many of the books and materials they need are not available electronically, and they must browse the library to find what they need.

“We think they’ve grossly underestimated how valuable of a resource this is,” said Brett Frankel, a graduate student in mathematics who signed a petition against the move. “Our subject has a very long memory, and that I think is a big part of why we are so heavily dependent on print sources. I have a book checked out right now that is more than 50 years old.”

The university, however, cites a pressing need for classroom space and, in the case of the engineering library, offices as well. Each library is about 5,000 square feet and houses between 35,000 and 40,000 volumes. The engineering library would be closed under the plan, though it would still have an office for its director, and the math, physics and astronomy library would be reduced by more than a third. The changes, the university said, would not result in layoffs.

“Those of us who grew up with a veneration for the printed word and who still collect and cherish books will be pained by this transition,” Eduardo D. Glandt, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, said last week in an email to faculty. “We all understand, however, that we are going through an irreversible sea change. The book or journal printed on cellulose is becoming a collector’s item, a wonderful artifact to be saved and preserved. Just not in the Towne Building.”

That refrain has become a familiar one at universities around the country as they move to digitize libraries and find space for other uses.

“It’s a trend, and it’s unfortunate, really,” said Steven Bell, past president of the Association of College and Research Libraries and associate librarian at Temple University. “They say the library is the heart of the university. They’re cutting a little piece of the heart out now.”

Temple in 2006 closed most of its branch libraries in areas such as education, social work, math, physics, chemistry and biology, he said. The sting hasn’t entirely faded.

“I still run into faculty who will say, ‘I really liked it when we had our own library in our building,'” Bell said.

At Penn on Monday, students turned in a petition with about 500 signatures to the provost’s office, opposing the change in the math, physics, and astronomy library. A second online petition against changes at both libraries has garnered more than 400 signatures to date, students said.

David Harbater, a professor of mathematics and chair of the graduate students, signed on.

“There’s a perception in the public and among administrators that people under 30 or 40 don’t believe in anything on paper, that they believe that books are obsolete,” Harbater said. “But in fact, it turns out that’s not true. People actually care about things that are print. They care about libraries.”

Under Penn’s plan, the library books would be stored in a New Jersey warehouse. Students could request them, but would have to wait several days to receive them, Frankel said.

“A lot of times you’re reading something and you realize you need something else,” said Neel Patel, a mathematics graduate student from South Brunswick, N.J. “If you’ve waited four or five days for that first book, now you realize you need another book, you have to wait another four or five days for that. It’s impossible to get any kind of research done that way. This is sort of sending the wrong message.”

Nisha Sosale, a graduate student in chemical engineering, said she was shocked to hear the engineering library was closing.

“It’s pretty much the only room in this building where you can study,” said Sosale, who was working on her thesis there on Monday.

Andrew Binns, Penn’s vice provost for education, said the university was still reviewing plans for the math library.

“We have lots of different priorities that we have to consider,” he said. “We’re trying to find the right mix of collections, study space and classrooms to meet the needs of the entire community.”

The university, he explained, is moving away from the traditional lecture structure in the engineering and science fields to more “active learning,” and needs flexible spaces where groups of students can sit and work together. Plans call for an “active learning” classroom in what is now the math library.

The university is exploring the possibility of storing the library books at a location closer than the warehouse, possibly in the main library, Binns said.

Access is critical, said Caitlin Beecham, a sophomore math major.

“At any one time, I have three books checked out that I’m reading,” she said. “It’s really important to have the library here.”

Photo via Wikimedia Commons