Global Breaking News - Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Do We Still Need Libraries?
The New York Times reports that, as big stores like Borders disappear, “many public libraries are seeing an opportunity to fill the void created by the loss of traditional bookstores.” Is that the right direction for libraries to take? What are libraries for, and how should they evolve?
* void = 빈 공간; 공허감/ evolve = 발달(진전, 진화)하다

 도서관의 존재(역할)와 앞으로 나아가야할 방향은?

1. Failing to Close the ‘Digital Divide’
The demand for libraries’ limited resources has outstripped the supply of both computers and bandwidth.

2. More Relevant Than Ever
Libraries are a place for personal growth and reinvention, a gathering place for civic engagement.

3. It’s Not Just Story Time and Bookmobiles
An old institution is incorporating new roles: as “makerspaces,” as centers of community publishing, and as digital learning labs.

4. For Gathering and for Solitude
We still need spaces for making knowledge and sharing change, and some of those, surely, we will continue to call “the library.”

Sample Essay

Failing to Close the ‘Digital Divide’

For a growing number of Americans, a library is for Internet access. According to a Pew survey last month, more than a quarter of all adults used the Internet at a library during the past year. The numbers are higher for blacks and Latinos than they are for whites. Indeed, whites may not know or understand how important library Internet access is to minorities: 92 percent of blacks and 86 percent of Latinos said it was very important for libraries to offer free access to computers and the Internet, while only 72 percent of whites did.

Users of public library Internet connections tell surveyors that they're applying for jobs, doing homework, getting information about health care, finding out about government benefits and managing their finances. And because almost a third of Americans (again, more blacks and Latinos than whites) don't subscribe to our country's expensive Internet access at home, librarians say that they're scrambling to fill the gap left by our nation's yawning digital divide.

A recent study by the Information Policy & Access Center at the University of Maryland reports that the demand for libraries’ limited resources has outstripped the supply of both computers and bandwidth: 87 percent of urban libraries report having insufficient computers, and only 17 percent of rural libraries offer broadband speeds greater than 10 Mbps, compared with 57 percent of urban libraries.

In the 21st century, high-speed Internet access is almost as essential as electricity. That libraries serve as the provider for millions of Americans isn't something to celebrate. It's a sign that we're in trouble. We're depriving people of basic information access that is central to every policy we care about – including health, education and national security – even though every American should be able to communicate reliably and access information at any time.