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The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

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Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#251

Post by darpa_escapee »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #157
darpa_escapee wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Librarians do much more than look for and put books on shelves.

I wonder how many people saying, "We don't need libraries and librarians" don't get this. Probably all of them. Maybe if they were to shadow a librarian for a couple days, they'd be on the same page.

Hell, all I had to do was overhear a few conversations between librarians and customers to dispel the misplaced idea I had that librarians were an archaic form of Google's search product.

It's embarrassing to admit that, but it's the truth.

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#252

Post by hvoiiita »

maym86 wrote: post #39
rayiner wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expenditure of public money on an endeavor should not be driven by romantic notions like whether something has "essential soul." Tax money is a scarce resource. Money that's spent on libraries is tax money that's not available to offer better lunches to needy children. That's the calculus. Our county library system gets $22 million a year in tax dollars to service 2.4 million visits. Could Amazon meet those needs mor…

Instead of worrying about whether school lunches or libraries should be prioritized let's focus on getting Amazon to pay its fair share in taxes so we can have both. In Alameda county we recently had a vote to raise taxes to fund libraries and it passed overwhelmingly - 76% voted yes. The people here think they're valuable.

Amazon operated under a loss for so long they have a ton of carryover tax credits

The fact they are not paying taxes right now is not a bad thing. We've benefited from them pushing commerce for the last decade

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#253

Post by darpa_escapee »

GW150914 wrote: post #167
eric_the_read wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked at public librarian salaries lately? A senior-- senior, mind you-- librarian at the Colorado Springs Library District is being offered $25/hr. I don't recall for certain by now, but I'm pretty sure I made more than that my very first year out of school and I'm practically decrepit by this site's standards.

For contrast, a cop makes 2-3 times that much per hour for directing traffic.

How many Netflix subscriptions could we subsidize if they were just replaced with a sign? /s

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#254

Post by zitterbewegung »

glup wrote: post #114
Fricken wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My local libraries are converting into makerspaces. They have green screens, sound studios, mac pros with Adobe creative suite software, 3D printers, Lego mindstorms, and a bunch of other stuff. Knowledge that can be printed is now abundant, but vernacular knowledge remains scarce, and the libraries in my city are becoming a storehouse for that knowledge. It's pretty cool.

out of interest, what city?

Also, the suburbs of Chicago was the area I was harping on before.

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#255

Post by zjaffee »

jerkstate wrote: post #6

When I was a young child, the library was a place for me to go to sit on a beanbag and read childrens books for hours while my mom studied for her masters degree. Now 2/3 of library patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction, and some parents may not wish to leave their children unattended in such an environment. I don't think Amazon has the answers but I see a natural tension between welcoming vagrants and ma…

When I was growing up in New York (worthy of note since they have far more resources for these things than small towns), the library I attended had partitioned areas for children and families separate from the rest of the library.

While this didn't mean adults couldn't go in these areas, it just wasn't set up in a way any adult would rather spend time in compared to other sections. This sort of a problem can certainly be solved.

Also I'd add on to the fact that the sorts of people who spend their day in a quiet place like a library, even if they are homeless, are almost certainly harmless. The strong economy has lead to an increase of rent seeking behaviors that have put working class people on the street.

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#256

Post by trgn »

epalmer wrote: post #77
chris_mc wrote: post #2

If you think libraries are useless, try going to one a few times and talk to the staff about the services they provide. I'd personally say libraries are one of the government organizations with the best return on investment, because education and information are almost invaluable. I'll fight a war over libraries, no joke.

My oldest daughter (26 years old) works at a library part-time in circulation. In December she will get her masters and be able to become a librarian. Libraries are more than books, they are maker spaces, community spaces, learning pods and so much more. We are bullish on libraries. However, libraries have to keep updating their services and offer community engagement services.

It's a beautiful profession too. There's several librarians in my family across 3 generations, and they all love their work. I think it's something about helping people, in a calm, welcoming environment, the work is a real good fit for bookish but social people.

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#258

Post by neuromantik8086 »

neuromantik8086 wrote: post #244

As someone who works in an academic library (which has very different needs from a public library), while I would disagree that libraries need "disruption" (which conjures up imagery of a librarian shushing me in the stacks for talking), there is a real need for tech talent. Most techies are lured away from programming for libraries by the private sector, which leaves us with an overabundance of clunky, expensive sof…

Another problem is that librarians themselves sometimes don't have the technical (in the sense of computing literacy; "technical" is a bit of loaded term in libraries because it can refer to collection maintenance [0]) skills necessary to do well in their jobs. Sometimes this is due to the era the librarian started in (a lot of librarians got their MLIS degree before computing was as prominent as it is now and haven't adapted to changes brought about by technology), other times this is due to curricular shortcomings in library schools (anecdotally, the University of Michigan, University of Washington and University of Indiana-Bloomington library schools seem to be exceptions to this).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_technical_services

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#259

Post by tcfunk »

stcredzero wrote: post #166
geebee wrote: post #12

I'm largely in agreement with this Vox piece, but I think there's much more to say in defense of libraries as well. I have a friend who found a red envelope with some money in it in a book that he'd checked out of the library. He figured it belonged to whoever had checked the book out earlier, so he went into the branch and mentioned it. They said that they could find out the last person to read the book, but no more…

Can you imagine Netflix or Amazon, Google or Facebook behaving this way? This is the difference between having a sense of civic duty and community vs. not. The customer/business relationship is a poor substitute for the real thing, even when they try to foster the trappings of false "community." there was a time when people considered the idea of an institution having a long and complete list of everything you've rea…

I don't the general populous' stance on companies having their data comes from a lack of civic duty. I think it's much more of a slow boil situation.

Cell phones happened and Facebook happened and everyone was like "Hell yeah this is awesome!". Later on, it became clear that all these companies were offering services were slurping up all kinds of information about us that given the choice we probably would say no to.

But when the cost of gaining back that privacy is giving up all these conveniences we've come to base our lives around, it becomes a pretty tough sacrifice to make.

Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”

#260

Post by maym86 »

hvoiiita wrote: post #252
maym86 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of worrying about whether school lunches or libraries should be prioritized let's focus on getting Amazon to pay its fair share in taxes so we can have both. In Alameda county we recently had a vote to raise taxes to fund libraries and it passed overwhelmingly - 76% voted yes. The people here think they're valuable.

Amazon operated under a loss for so long they have a ton of carryover tax credits The fact they are not paying taxes right now is not a bad thing. We've benefited from them pushing commerce for the last decade

It's a bad thing. They're actively avoiding tax and hiding profits. It's not accidental and it's not all because they are reinvesting. They have decided that they shouldn't contribute to things that don't directly benefit them while using the tax payer built infrastructure and lobying to keep it that way. They're using this tax advantage to kill competition.

https://medium.com/bull-market/amazon-minimizes-profits-beca...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/technology/...

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