in General, Libraries/Info Sci, Tech

TV’s at each seat

Michael McGrorty, a Councilor of the ALA, has a blog!
http://librarydust.typepad.com

This is probably common news, but I’m still exploring the library blogosphere.

He has a wonderful post on prevailing attitudes in libraries today, as well as how change is viewed. When discussing how libraries had reacted to, instead of shaping, the Internet:

I was sitting not long ago with some folks at a table in the midst of an ALA meeting when the topic of the Internet came up. I suggested an analogy: that the library’s response was as if movie theater owners had reacted to the emergence of television by ignoring the competition, then putting TV sets at each seat rather than by selling their films to the television networks. In return I got a table-full of strange looks.

I’m happy someone at the ALA understands these things and knows what is going on. Very well written, too.