ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030016
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
THE IDEA of libraries has been around for centuries. The word, which derives from the Latin "liber" or book, has been in the English language since at least the 14th century.
But the idea of libraries has not stayed unchanged for all those years, and it continues to undergo revision today.
Technology has driven much of the change - from the clay-tablet archives of ancient Babylonia, to the more portable parchment and papyrus "books" of classical antiquity, to the invention of the printing press in the 1400s and subsequent mass production of printed books and journals.
Today, computers are similarly revolutionizing the knowledge-dissemination enterprise. CD-ROMs, data bases and the Internet are fast becoming aspects of everyday life. New sources of information seem to expand exponentially.
Where does this leave libraries? More needed than ever.
That's because of another change over the centuries in the idea of libraries. That idea has come to mean not only collecting and storing knowledge, but also making it widely accessible.
First came the concept of public libraries - that is, collections open to anyone interested and not simply to their owners. Then, in the 19th century, the principle took hold in America and other democracies that public-library services should be tax-paid functions of government, available to citizens regardless of wealth. The rise of professional librarianship to assist patrons navigate the collections also made knowledge more accessible.
The computer revolution has made knowledge-accessibility issues even more fundamental. Equipment costs for driving onto the information superhighway are not trivial, particularly for lower-income Americans. Surfing the 'Net by oneself can be, like browsing a bookshelf, great fun; also like traditional library services, however, searching for specific information can be faster and more comprehensive with the help of a specialist in information access.
"Libraries Change Lives. Call. Visit. Log On," says the American Library Association, and the theme is apt. By 1995, people could sign on to the Internet at nearly 30 percent of public libraries serving populations of 100,000 or more; 70 percent of those libraries provided commercial data-base searches with staff assistance; more than half provided microcomputers and software for public use.
Books aren't apt to become obsolete anytime soon. For many purposes - try reading a novel on a computer screen - they remain the best available technology. But for many other purposes, computer links are fast joining the printed page as sources of expanding knowledge.
So, if public libraries are to remain, like public schools, a central institution of popular self-government; if they are to continue serving their traditional mission of making information broadly and freely available, then their computer services will have to continue expanding - with public support.
Continuous learning no longer is a luxury. It's a necessity both for prosperity and citizenship. Efficient access to, and effective use of, knowledge increasingly differentiate the haves from the have-nots in our economy and society. And there is only so much of a gap between haves and have-nots that a democracy can tolerate.
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