Local ‘Cybraries’ Power Up

On the threshold of the 20th century, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie issued a challenge meant to bring knowledge to the masses: He would build and equip public libraries if local authorities donated the land and maintained them.

The Scottish-born philanthropist’s millions created 1,650 “Carnegie” libraries across the prairies, deltas and farmlands of a still-youthful United States. Today, there are 16,000 public libraries across the nation, and on the cusp of the 21st century, another profound change is taking place.

Far from becoming musty museums for those quaint things known as books, the role of the library as society’s repository of knowledge is taking a quantum leap: Nearly three-fourths have plugged into the Information Age, providing public access to the Internet and the chance to explore myriad databanks and archives.

And libraries, more in demand than ever, are broadening their offerings, in the process becoming a sort of cultural crossroads, complete with interactive exhibits for children or coffee bars and restaurants, such as the one at Orange County’s newest public library branch in Aliso Viejo.

“I’ve used the word ‘apocalyptic’ myself,” Los Angeles City Librarian Susan Kent said of the transformation of one of America’s most treasured public institutions.

Correspondingly, many experts--including California State Librarian Kevin Starr, who calls libraries “malls for the mind and the imagination”--see the role of librarians morphing into that of navigators on the frontiers of knowledge. Call them the ultimate search engines--or, perhaps the best high-tech sobriquet yet, cybrarians.

The movement to hard-wire libraries and redefine their mission is not without detractors. Some fear that placing such emphasis on technology may backfire, and that librarians are too far ahead of their public--the “books vs. bytes” debate. And some libraries, concerned that children could view adult material, have taken the controversial step of installing filters to block access to certain Internet sites.

Still, Kent called this “the most exciting time for public libraries” in 30 years.

Consider:

* San Francisco’s $140-million main library--both heralded and criticized as a high-tech model for the 21st century when it opened in 1996--has 220 computer workstations offering public access to library databases and the Internet.

* The new $17-million main county library in Charleston, S.C., has two rooftop satellite dishes to receive university courses, a Web site that includes a “virtual” walking tour of the historic city, and 60 public computer terminals linked to the Internet.

* The California Legislature in September allocated $5 million to begin linking all 8,000 public and private California libraries into a single, interactive resource. That would mean the electronic databases of every library would be instantly available to any library patron anywhere in the state, so that someone who couldn’t find a particular book in the Mission Viejo Library could find a copy in Eureka or at Stanford University within seconds and request its delivery.

“This is a quantum leap in librarianship and resource sharing,” Starr said of the $66-million program, to be completed by 2010.

* Los Angeles voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a $178.3-million bond measure for 32 projects to upgrade, renovate, expand or replace 32 branch libraries. This comes as an earlier $53-million bond measure for 27 branch libraries is nearing completion.

* The Orange County Public Library system, after restoring staff and hours of operation, is building new facilities after years of post-Proposition 13 cutbacks. The newest branch opened in January in Aliso Viejo with just four computer terminals linked to the Internet, but also with state-of-the-art high-speed lines designed for expansion.

And as the new millennium approaches, Microsoft’s Bill Gates has emerged as the Digital Age philanthropist, offering $200 million over five years to bring computers into libraries in poor areas of the United States and Canada.

“That’s as big an impact--if not more--than Carnegie had,” said Elizabeth Martinez, former head of the Los Angeles city and Orange County public libraries, who was executive director of the American Library Assn. when Gates’ project was developed.

“Carnegie changed the physical landscape [of the public library] and made it accessible [to everyone], but Gates is making the 21st century available to low-income communities.”

Greater Sophistication Meets Rising Demand

Nationwide, demand for library services remains strong. A recent Gallup Poll showed that 64% of adults own library cards and averaged seven visits to a library last year.

Of those, 81% borrowed books, 65% consulted a librarian, 61% used reference materials, 50% read newspapers or magazines, 32% borrowed records, CDs or videos, 17% connected to the Internet and 15% heard a speaker, saw a movie or attended a class or program.

About 6 million visits were paid to Orange County Public Library branches last year, and nearly 6 million items were borrowed--up from about 4 million visits and about 4 million circulation items in 1994.

In the Los Angeles Public Library system, which serves 3.7 million people--the largest population base for any public library in the country--patronage continues to rise: Angelenos made 11 million visits and borrowed 12 million books and other items in fiscal year 1997-98. That’s up from 10 million visits and 11 million circulation items in 1996-97.

Increasingly, voters are using the condition of their local library as the prism through which they evaluate whether they’re getting a return on their tax dollar, said Starr, the state librarian.

“You hear, ‘I pay my taxes, but the library is not open enough.’ Library service becomes the benchmark on quality of life.”

Accordingly, large and small communities across the nation are reinvesting in libraries as centers of learning, literacy and culture.

Main libraries also have been built or renovated in Sacramento, Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio and Portland, Ore., over the last five years. Voters also have approved new central libraries in Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Ark., and Rochester, N.Y.

In California, Starr said, “more than $2.5 million a day is spent on public libraries. That hardly sounds like a dying enterprise. There are more than a billion square feet of documented library expansion needs in this state right now.”

A growing number have added public meeting rooms and auditoriums, or expanded their range of services--from children’s programs and author appearances to literacy classes and instruction on Internet and database research.

For example, a weekend Teen Comic Art and Animation Festival at Los Angeles Central Library drew a mostly teenage crowd of 10,000 last month.

Free public access to the Internet is unquestionably one of the hottest attractions. Demand is so great at computer-laden main branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco that people are restricted to 30 minutes each during busy hours.

San Francisco City Librarian Regina Minudri said such demand for Internet access is “probably the biggest sea change in library service since we started automating in the late ‘60s.”

Virtual Content, and More on the Way

Automation hit libraries in a big way in the 1970s, when cards slipped into sleeves in the back of books were replaced with electronic bar codes. The labor-intensive card catalog--an innovation in Carnegie’s day, as were movable bookshelves, a central circulation desk and the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature--began to go online about the same time.

Today, librarians are contemplating the mix of books and electronic databases they’ll need in the 21st century, said Clifford Lynch, former director of library automation for the nine-campus University of California system and now executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for Networked Information.

The advantages of electronic information are evident at the Los Angeles Public Library.

In a system dubbed the “Virtual Library,” patrons at many branches can get access to the library’s electronic card catalog and a decade of magazines and newspapers, as well as encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographical information and data on literature, business, health, science, the arts and trade.

“We like to say we have created the library without walls within the walls of the library,” said Kent, adding that one of her goals is to make “this wealth of content” available at all neighborhood branches.

And more content will be coming online.

The Library of Congress’ National Digital Library Program is expected to exceed its goal of 5 million digital items online by the institution’s bicentennial in 2000.

Among the items: Matthew Brady Civil War photographs, film footage of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and audio of a 1920 campaign speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“Before, people would have to come to Washington and visit one of our reading rooms to have access to these materials,” said Bob Zich, director of electronic programs.

Now many public libraries are digitizing their local history collections. For the last 18 months, the Los Angeles Central Library has been cataloging more than 2 million historic photographs, a few thousand of which are now available on the library’s Web site.

“It’s a preservation issue,” Kent said.

Casting Librarians as High-Tech Guides

The public may need some coaching in how to use the libraries of the new millennium, which is where knowledge navigators come in.

In a 1996 survey, the Washington, D.C.-based Benton Foundation found that most Americans were concerned that technology would make reading outdated. And while librarians were liked and admired, survey respondents weren’t sure librarians were equipped to teach them computer skills, said Susan Nall Bales, director of strategic communications.

To overcome this “disconnect,” a recent foundation report recommends that libraries portray librarians as astute yet friendly people who can provide “enlightened guidance” and build trust in technology.

And in poor communities, the chasm between computer haves and have-nots is being bridged gradually.

The public library in the small Alabama town of Demopolis (population 7,500) got a $37,000 grant from the Gates Library Foundation last fall. Coupled with a matching city grant, the library bought eight computers to provide public access to the Internet.

Acting director Ouida Kane, who in 28 years as a librarian has seen the Demopolis Public Library grow from “one little room” to a two-story library in a renovated furniture store, views the foundation’s gift as a godsend.

“If this is what the future is going to be--and if we want to have current and up-to-date materials--we felt it was necessary to provide this for our patrons,” she said.

Radical Challenge to the Profession

Librarians can only speculate what technological innovations await.

“There are going to be dramatic changes, and it’s going to be traumatic, too, for many of us in the profession,” said Martinez, the former Los Angeles and Orange County librarian.

She envisions libraries as places where patrons will find comfortable seating around digitized access points for computerized information. The librarian’s job will be to help the public use electronic and digitized information.

“How to use it? What’s reliable? What’s authentic? How to maneuver those millions and millions of sites on the Internet,” said Martinez, now a senior fellow in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

“I think the librarian is going to have star quality: We’re going to be popular. I see a very bright future, but a different one.”

Meanwhile, State Librarian Starr says anyone who predicts the demise of books or magazines “is absolutely fooling himself. You’re not going to read Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ from a computer screen.”

The public library, too, will continue to be a community focal point--or as Starr called it, “the ‘there’ there.”

“Just because the technology allows people to fragment themselves into isolated units does not mean they’re going to do it,” he said. “The human being is possessed of multiple drives and needs, including the need for community.”

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To Library Patrons: Regular or Decaf?

Four years ago an espresso cart appeared in the lower patio of the Huntington Beach Central Library. It has become quite popular, fitting right in with the living room ambience of couches, chairs and tables.

“Caffeine and reading kind of go together,” Library Services Director Ron Hayden said. “People are used to a Starbucks being next to a Barnes & Noble.”

The Orange County library system took the idea a step further when it opened its Aliso Viejo branch in January. It included space for a coffeehouse next door, and in August, Pages Cafe opened, offering light breakfasts and lunches. But the main fare is really coffee.

Librarian Carin Sung approves.

“Our patrons can go to the atrium area, have a cup of coffee, look at the rolling hills and have a nice book in their hands. It’s wonderful.”

But Dave Hanna, the operator, says the cafe is struggling. There are still too few customers from outside the library.

“I’m asking the county for help, and the county can’t do it. People think we’re county-owned, but I invested my own dollars that I can never get back,” Hanna said.

“I’m a total guinea pig, I understand that now. We’re breaking some ground here. We’re the first cafe inside a county library. Hopefully, we won’t be the last.”

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Libraries in demand

Libraries are more in demand than ever, especially now that many offer computers linked to the Internet, interactive exhibits for children and coffee bars or restaurants.

LIBRARY CARDHOLDERS

Age 18 and up

Nationwide: 64%

Females: 69

Males: 60

By Age

18-34: 70

35-54: 72

55 and older: 48

Income

Up to $20,000: 48

$20-39,999: 61

$40,000-59,999: 70

$60,000 +: 78

INTERNET ACCESS

Public libraries with Internet access: 73%

Connected, but with no Internet access: 17

Not connected: 10

USE POLICIES

Most libraries with Internet access have acceptable-use policies for people using their computers, but don’t employ filters for screening sites.

Have acceptable-use policy; no filters: 72%

Have policy, use filters on some/all workstations: 13

No filters; no acceptable-use policy: 3

Other: 12

LIBRARY COMPUTER USERS

Less than a third of patrons use computers at the library.

Users: 29%

Nonusers: 71

Users, by age

18-34: 41%

35-54: 33

55 and older: 9

WALK-IN PATRONS

Most in-person patrons--surprise!-- check out books.

Take out books: 81%

Consult librarian: 65

Use reference materials: 61

Read newspapers/magazines: 50

Check out records, CDs or videos: 32

Connect to Internet: 17

Hear speaker, other: 15

LINKING UP FROM OUTSIDE

People tap into the library from outside to:

Consult librarian: 60%

Check computerized library catalog: 48

Renew book loans: 29

Use other resources on library’s Web page: 26

THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES

Most people say libraries will exist in the future, even with the information explosion online. And two in five rate the value of libraries at the top of the list compared with other tax-supported services.

Will libraries exist in future?

Yes: 90%

No: 10%

Top Value

Nationwide: 40%

18-34 years: 32

35-54: 45

55 and older: 41

Sources: American Library Assn., based on a June 1998 Gallup survey of 1,000 people; 1998 national Survey of Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity, 2,500 public libraries

LAUNCHPOINT 2000

More information on today’s topic can be found on several Web sites:

- The Library of Congress: With an astonishing assortment of collections, the Library of Congress offers photos, video/sound clips and documents on topics ranging from baseball and Leonard Bernstein to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Civil War and Sigmund Freud. Read bills under consideration or detailed studies of 85 countries; search copyright records or the collections of libraries across the nation.

https://www.loc.gov/

- Duke University’s Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library: Whether you’re interested in ancient Egyptian papyrus, presidential campaign memorabilia or the women’s liberation movement, this online library offers a range of historic and cultural exhibitions. Special features include African-American studies and the history of sales, marketing and advertising.

https://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/

- Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE: Medieval literature, California history, aerial photography and Java tutorials are just a few of the resources available here. Research tools include extensive listings of online exhibitions and an ImageFinder that searches photo collections from around the world.

https://sunsite.berkeley.edu/

Library Spot: Find all the references you need in one handy location: phone books, maps, encyclopedias, statistics, newspapers, magazines, and even medical, law and music libraries. Learn to track stocks, land jobs, write term papers, research companies and trace your family history through special online guides.

https://www.libraryspot.com/