Salon.com today has an
opinion piece that makes me think of our own new University Boulevard Library. Apparently, what we have in our library, for good or ill, is part of a nation-wide, possibly world-wide, discussion.
I'm amazed at what I get for free in public libraries. Books, big tottering stacks of books, but there's also computer access and, in the last few years, free Wi-Fi. When my son was younger, we went to story hours and sing-a-longs.
Libraries are one of the great loves of my life. That's why a hearing last week about the Boston Public Library's proposal to close some neighborhood branches has me on edge. And several months after the opening of the new main library in Cambridge, I find myself asking an unexpected question.
What's the purpose of libraries -- really? To be a community gathering place? To promote life-long learning? To help users navigate the information flow? To store print documents for the historical record, as Nicholson Baker argues they should (and aren't) in "Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper"? (Read more...)
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