Are Libraries Still Relevant? | Liz Bartlett | TEDxCaryWomen

good afternoon my own personal first memory of libraries comes from second grade when we lived in Kansas in the 60s my brother and I would visit the bookmobile any time it came to our neighborhood we'd climb up those bus stairs and go straight for the picture books with me usually looking for my favorite bread and jam for Francis a few years later in sixth grade I had the opportunity to be a library aide in my elementary school in Virginia my task was to put call numbers on the books and film strips being added to that collection I spent a lot of time in libraries since then as a student volunteer patron and now for over 30 years as a librarian and whether they were school libraries academic libraries or public libraries those institutions have been a constant in my life now over the years my reading tastes have changed and thank goodness because my mother used to despair that I'd never stop reading Nancy Drew mysteries the way I've used libraries has also changed from being a beginner reader to a college student to an educator in that same time libraries themselves have been growing and changing so much so you may not recognize what they have become what do you think of when you hear the word library do you see an imposing building with rows and rows of books do you remember a look wanting a looking looking for a nook for a quiet place to read you may remember a room full of rambunctious toddlers attending storytime or yourself working on a computer trying to finish a term paper you may even remember a librarian because libraries have been all those things including the stereotyped librarian now over the course of my career I've often heard the question do you think books and libraries will still be around much longer it's a good question it's one you may have asked yourself in today's digital world do libraries still have anything to offer or are they on the endangered list and easily replaced to answer let me take a look at where books and libraries have come from early writing dates back to Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BCE they have found piles and piles of clay tablets that our temple records and business accounts and which are in essence the first books in the first known libraries fast forward to today there are over 1 million books published each year in the US alone books haven't disappeared by any means though their form may have changed print books are still extremely popular but we've gone from this type of tablet to this type of tablet and as for libraries themselves they are now so ubiquitous that there are over 17,000 of them in the United States so back to the question of whether or not I think books and libraries will survive let's just say that since they both have more than 5,000 years of history behind them I wouldn't bet against them but that's my opinion you may be betting against books and libraries because you're not even sure if people still read anymore in which case it might interest you to know that in a survey released this year 73% of respondents indicated that they had read at least one book in the past year their reading habits were different 65% read print books 28% read ebooks and 14% listened to audio books but you know what it all still counts as reading so you say that's great people are still reading but do we really need library buildings in order to get books well I will concede that libraries are not the only place to get books but they are still a fabulous resource do you remember those 17,000 libraries I just mentioned it appears they are still doing quite well those libraries have over 1 and a half billion items available to checkout print books ebooks audio video that's enough material to give 5 books to every man woman and child in this country historically speaking libraries have offered no cost books and a quiet place to read and study but in the 20th century they began to move away from that role as silent institutions and became more about people and services when I started in the career in the profession in the 80s in addition to providing books the top three services that libraries offered were readers advisory reference and programming readers advisory is the art of finding the right book for the right person at the right time and we librarians do love to talk books in fact the most dangerous question you can ask a librarian is can you recommend something good for me to read when my own friends ask that question I laugh at them and I say are you sure you have time to start this conversation reference is about helping the timer find the information they need and the librarian is if not the font of all knowledge then the navigator of it one of my favorite examples of reference service came from what I thought was a simple question from a young library user he wanted information about Wales to be sure I knew what he needed I asked a couple of questions what grade are you in is this for a school report is this just something you want to know more about as I started to walk him over to the shelves I realized I still wasn't sure I knew I was on the right topic did this young man need information about the mammal whales or about the country of whales I almost took them to the wrong section now reference is something that we do less and less in libraries these days because nowadays everyone can just google it for themselves right here's my response to that from a favorite t-shirt of mine Google can find you 100,000 answers a librarian will find you the right one programming is about bringing families and children into the library for group learning activities and most libraries in the u.s. offer a wide variety of programs for young children story times school age programs teen events many of those libraries also have offer activities for adults including book discussion groups and creative writing courses in fact in 2010 libraries reported that they had presented more than 4 million free public programs to their customers as we moved into the 21st century library still do books and we still do those traditional three readers advisory reference and programming but we are about that and so much more in fact do you know what libraries have to offer today because most people don't well most people will tell you that a library is an important part of the community our own surveys tell us only about 22 percent of the population really know what libraries have to offer anymore I believe this is less about communication and more about the vast changes that have been going on in libraries in recent years and we are no longer the libraries that your grandmother used libraries have been evolving to meet the needs of their users and today they are more about access inclusiveness and community place in regards to access the Census Bureau tells us that while the that most people now have either a computer or a handheld device only about 75% of the population have reliable internet service because the digital divide still exists a key role for libraries these days isn't offering public internet computers and many of them provide Wi-Fi as well in addition to the computers themselves libraries offer a limber of online tools ebooks databases for things like languages and genealogy homework help and job assistance inclusiveness is the idea that in a public library everyone is welcome and that there is something for everyone inside now you may not think of a library as a place for health and well-being but today's libraries are offering things like fitness classes and meditation workshops and they bring in guest speakers to help their users navigate things like insurance and healthcare questions libraries also promote employment and help to strengthen their local economies because they provide free technology training career and college prep and educational workshops my own library system has been offering services and programs designed to meet specific population needs for example life hacks programs these are programs designed for young adults that let them learn how to apply for college and how to handle their own finances sensory story times are available for children on the autism spectrum that allow them to participate in group events in a safe environment where they don't feel overwhelmed we've even been exploring things like Spanish and sign language storytimes and other libraries as well are looking at innovative things they've been looking at brown bag lunch lectures concerts with local artists ESL classes and maker spaces and did you know that you can check out bird-watching kits in Alaskan libraries and you can check out snowshoes in Maine this is part of an interesting phenomenon known as a library of things available in some communities these are collections designed to meet the needs of local demands here's a few of them my favorites are cake pans and neckties for job seekers the idea here isn't so much to improve the libraries as it is to evolve with their communities and to help bring new experiences and collections that bring people into our doors a library is a community space and most of them are centrally located and so they are ideal places in which to offer a lot of community source resources my own new library is located in a downtown park in a part of town that's being redeveloped with new housing and business opportunities as a result we're going to be able to offer cooperative ventures with the Parks and Rec Department the Local History Museum and the next-door Art Center we also partner with schools to offer resources for teachers and in the last few summers our library system has been working with social services and we provide literacy activities in conjunction with the summer lunch programs for disadvantaged children we also do voter registration provide go passes for the local bus service promote lifelong learning at local schools and advertise community cultural events public librarians interact with all of the parts of their community on a daily basis and as a result they are often have first-hand knowledge of their communities and are often the first to recognize a local need one of these is something you may have heard in the news called the loneliness epidemic research is now telling us that loneliness and isolation can be as damaging to health and smoking 15 cigarettes a day and we have a rapidly aging population and a larger part of the younger generation choosing to live alone so libraries are finding that a new role for them is in helping our seniors and our singles to navigate this loneliness epidemic libraries are also opportunity centers because they offer free internet and GED classes business workshops and resume help helping people as diverse as immigrants and seniors students job seekers and entrepreneurs the library is a community place and it is placed where connections are happening all the time new moms meet up at baby storytime and make connections seniors attend a program and find that they make new friends teens meet up after school in the youth section and hang out or oh do stop stop studying and our neighbors see each other at the library and settle down for a chat about community or current events more so than any community center Town Hall or public park ever could a library is a community building place because it brings so many diverse resources under one all welcoming roof for everyone to share people may go to the library looking mainly for information but they find each other their libraries of today and of the future will be less about books and more about their place and communities and their value added services that they bring to the community but today's modern libraries are offering more to their communities than ever before so do we still do we do we still need libraries I hope I've surprised you with some things about what libraries are about today but even more I hope I've challenged you to go and find your nearest public library to see what they have to offer to you and to your families because we still do e indeed we do thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 11,540

Rating: 4.9411764 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Humanities, Book, Community, Evolution, Library, Social Interaction

Id: sG7zYoUq_bs

Length: 16min 48sec (1008 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 08 2020