Category Archives: libraries

A brief history of the internet and digital libraries

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Traditional libraries collect physical materials and organize them to make them available for users. In the same way, digital libraries collect and organizes digital materials. It makes them available on the internet, although some early ones comprised collections of CD-ROMs and current ones can use portable e-book readers. Also, even though many libraries make their unique materials (manuscript collections and the like) available online, they are not digital libraries. Digital libraries transcend the collections of any one physical library and exist only online. Digital libraries have only existed for about 30 years, but they arose from so many different sources that it’s impossible to trace their history in a straight line. They are bound up in the history of the internet, too.

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Ainsworth Rand Spofford and the modern Library of Congress

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The Library of Congress started as just that, a library for the use of members of Congress. It occupied space in the Capitol building. Now, of course, it is the national library with buildings of its own. Ainsworth Rand Spofford, the sixth Librarian of Congress, made it happen. Throughout the 19th century, the Librarian of Congress was simply a political appointment. Only one of the first five had any kind of literary background. That one could have turned the Library of Congress into a national library.  Unfortunately, he lacked the political competence to match his vision. Spofford followed perhaps the worst qualified of all Librarians of Congress. His early career gave him wonderful qualifications, political skill, and patience. He needed it all.

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What is Friends of the Library?

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Libraries have primary sources of funding. Public libraries rely on local taxes. Academic libraries rely on their part of a college or university budget. School libraries get funding through the school district. But that funding has never been enough. You have probably come across more than one group called Friends of the Library. What is Friends of the Library and why does it matter? Libraries need additional financial support. Besides getting financial support directly from the activity of Friends of the Library, the existence and activities of the group make it easier for libraries to get grant money. Friends of the Library supplies volunteers needed for library programs—quite apart from fundraising. In recent decades, politicians and bureaucrats have started to think of libraries as archaic and no longer necessary. Friends of the Library have a powerful advocacy role. Library directors may seem like they’re simply protecting their turf. Friends of the Library, as community members, may have more credibility. And, of course, Friends of the Library advocates to the public at large, not just the organizations with the purse strings.

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Libraries and textbooks: fighting to stay relevant

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Contributed by Sophia Sanchez Carl Linnaeus classified humans as Homo sapiens or the ‘man who is wise’ in Latin. He did so because we are prolific users of tools, have developed languages and writing systems, and can imagine things and actually bring them into reality. We search for knowledge to better ourselves. In our society, we have long relied on libraries and textbooks to help us gain knowledge. Have they outlived their usefulness?

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Artificial intelligence and libraries

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I found another tiresome article about how the library is more than books. It mentioned several kinds of new technology in libraries. One especially caught my attention. One library has its own robotics lab. So I wanted to see if any other libraries did. My search for “robots in libraries” instead turned up eye-opening information about artificial intelligence and machine learning. As it turns out, the topics of robots and artificial intelligence are not as unrelated as it might seem. Artificially intelligent robots may actually become library patrons someday! If rubbing shoulders with them seems too much like science fiction, artificial intelligence already poses social benefits and threats. Libraries will have to learn to deal with both.

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