I recently received an important report on the state of libraries from WordsRated. WordsRated is a non-commercial, international research data and analytics group that studies reading, books, authors, and the publishing industry. The report examines library trends in the US over the past three decades. Although it doesn’t say so explicitly, it specifically concerns public libraries. Here is a summary of its findings:
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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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“Digital divide” refers to various related problems that result in some segments of the population having inadequate access to online content. Many of us have computers and broadband service at home. Many others either lack computers or have inadequate means of using online content. Gaps show up in economic inequality, age, and urban vs rural communities. Public libraries are at the forefront of attempts to bridge these gaps. I have written about the digital divide before, but it’s time for an update.
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I once got lost in the Library of Congress. I was on a high school tour when a couple of friends and I made a wrong turn and ended up in library personnel office space. A nice man showed us how to get back where we belonged. The library just unveiled its National Screening Room, and I’m having a similar experience trying to wrap my mind around it. In 1800, Congress decided to establish a library for itself. It was certainly not a public library, or even a federal government library. It was specifically the Library of Congress. Its scope has grown since then. Now, anyone can apply to visit it and use its collection, the largest library collection in the world. It has grown to more than 19.5 million items. And anyone can take advantage of its digital collections without leaving home. It has digitized more than 2 million items.
Continue reading →Preservation of online information presents a very difficult problem in general. Federal government websites are especially vulnerable at the end of a presidential term. The End of Term Web Archive has preserved a snapshot of them since 2008. I have seen web posts that speak of a frantic effort to preserve government information. They attribute it to fear of the incoming Trump administration. Don’t believe such mindless hysteria. Regardless of who won the election, the End of Term Web Archive team would be hard at work. Even when a President is reelected, turnover in the cabinet and at other agencies can be high. The new team often takes down the old sites to make room for its own. If a government document exists in print, some archive preserves it. The National Archives or a presidential library preserve a lot. Government information that exists only on the web easily disappears without a trace. Just like any other web-based information.
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