Yowsa! I’m getting some very encouraging response from an article I wrote for the current issue of Public Libraries Magazine! Here’s one…
“I was blown away by ‘If Books are Our Brand,’ by Carson Block. It is an outstanding article. It’s everything I would have written if I was smart enough to do so. Every e-reader class I teach or every time I demonstrate the e-book catalog, I get that odd sense that I am sending folks further away from the library. It’s a strange feeling; worse than when we lost $85,000 in funding. Money will always be a problem; it’s the idea that as library professionals, we feel less relevant–even in a fleeting moment.
The article is dead-on; ‘this is about how market forces could, perhaps unknowingly and without malice, wipe out the public good served by libraries.’ This is exactly what I couldn’t seem to quite ‘get’ when trying to wrap my head around e-books and e-readers and their impact on libraries.
And I agree, ‘knowing how to go forward isn’t a snap,’ but with the issue so succinctly clarified by Mr. Block, it eases my mind a bit and re-enforces my commitment to what I believe is our brand–reading. Yes, we must ‘have access to the resources and tools in an ever changing world,’ but we must fundamentally champion reading.”
Sharon McRae, Director
Shaler North Hills Library
Glenshaw, PA