Tag Archives: library technology

How to use the library: a reminder of awesome library services

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For the better part of two years, the pandemic shut down most public institutions, including libraries. Now that things are getting back to normal, let’s take a look at using the library and the wide variety of library services. Some of them were too little known even before the pandemic. Library buildings house library collections, which encompass a wide variety of materials. Or, actually, more than materials. Electronic resources make up a growing portion of library collections. The internet makes it possible for people to use library resources without ever visiting the library building. But the library building houses much more than the collection. It has meeting rooms, exhibit areas, and performance areas, too. Library services do not depend on the building. You can take advantage of many of them from home. Library personnel take various services to people around the community. After all, libraries serve many different constituencies, including people who for various reasons cannot visit the building.

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Library services for disabled people: the accessible library

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As of the 2010 census, more than 20% of the American workforce had some kind of disability. Half of the population older than 65 had some kind of disability. Libraries have long been committed to serving the entire community. Library services for disabled people require providing access to the facilities, collections, and programs. These services may not be obvious, or even evident, to most patrons. I came across an article about how the pandemic has hindered library services for disabled people. It describes how four different public libraries are struggling to function under pandemic restrictions. When I visited those libraries’ web sites, I did not find a single page that described their library accessibility services. With or without an easy-to-find web page, libraries do make special efforts to meet the needs of disabled people.

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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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Henriette Avram and the modern library catalog

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In the late 1960s, the Library of Congress started work on two major achievements. The massive National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints eventually reached 754 volumes and took 130 feet of shelf space. Computerizing library cataloging soon rendered it obsolete. Henriette Avram, who never went to library school, led the team that devised MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging). The primary purpose in developing MARC was to automate printing library catalog cards, but Avram and her team also intended it for libraries to be able to print their lists of  new acquisitions. The Library of Congress supplied card sets for its entire holdings to any American library that ordered them. That saved libraries the expense of cataloging those materials themselves. Avram did not envision putting the entire library catalog online and making cards obsolete, but her work made it possible. In fact, MARC enabled the online public access catalog, which saves so much time and space. Patrons had to visit the library at times when it was open in order to use it. Now, anyone with internet service can use the catalog and interact with it without leaving home. Or use it anywhere in the library without leaving where they’re working. The MARC … Continue reading →

COVID-19, the digital divide, and library services

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What can you do if you don’t have a computer? Libraries have long been the destination for people who don’t own computers. Or who don’t have internet access at home. The difference between the haves and have nots in internet service is known as the digital divide. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced libraries to close, the digital divide became more evident and more serious.

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