Da Vinci Reading

This article is mainly about the way that libraries have changed since they were first introduced. At first libraries were made because books were rare and far too expensive for common people to afford and keep in their home. Once Johan Gutenberg invented the printing press and introduced it to the public libraries were changed dramatically. Another man who had a very large impact on the evolution on libraries was architect Andrew Carnegie who provided the money for thousands of libraries to be built. The article provides ten main trends that have caused libraries to change and they are: communication systems are changing the way people access information, all technologies end and will be replaced by something new, we have not yet reached the ultimate small particle storage, search technology will become increasingly complicated, time compression is changing the lifestyle of people who use libraries, over time we will be transitioning to a verbal society, demand for global information is growing exponentially, the stage is being set for a new era of Global Systems, we are transitioning from a product-based economy to an experience based economy, and libraries will transition from a center of information to a center of culture. These are the trends that are transforming our libraries today.

I think that as our society evolves and new technologies become available libraries will become less important. I believe that over time all books will be available on the Internet. The day that happens is probably not too far away because so many books are already available on websites such as Google Books. Libraries will begin to have fewer books and more computers which is another thing we are already seeing today. Here at UNCW we are experiencing a growth in computers available in the libraries. As many of you may recall, Mrs. Pemberton told us about an entire new section of Macintosh computers that will be added to our library for next year. This shows that the changes talked about in the article are already underway.

-Kevin Petersen

News Report

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/february2009/orscosla.cfm
State Funding for Many Public libraries on Decline
Febuary 10, 2009
No Author

This article is much like many others that have been popping up on the ALA press release web page. It is about the decrease in funding for libraries during a time where the use of libraries has been skyrocketing. The article mentions that the southeastern section of the United States has been hit the hardest. The state with the largest reduction in library funding has been South Carolina which has had it's funding cut back by as much as 30% for it's libraries. Other states with large library cut backs include Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. Jim Rettig, the president of the ALA, spoke about this problem saying, "Libraries are part of the solution when a community is struggling economically – assisting the unemployed with jobs searches and filing unemployment benefits, helping the unskilled learn to use a computer, providing homework help and access to e-government services" and then added to that by saying, “Now is the time to call members of Congress and make sure libraries are included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” North Carolina was also on the list of states expected to experience a decline in funding for libraries in the 2009 Fiscal Year.

We have spoke about this problem almost every week while sharing our news reports but the problem does not fail to amaze me each time. Agreeing with the words of Jim Rettig, I do believe that libraries have become increasingly important to citizens of the United States during these hard economic times and that we need to do more to improve their funding. Citizens are becoming dependent on libraries for the use of the Internet. With the unemployment rate soaring higher and higher people need computers to look for jobs because employers are posting jobs on the Web instead of in newspapers because it is cheaper. Public libraries have become increasingly important as of late and our nation needs to figure out a way to fund them more properly.

News Report 2

On October 10, 2008, George W. Bush passed a bill that will required any school that are receiving money from the government for telecommunication programs to educate its students about “appropriate online behavior”. This bill is called Broadband Data Improvement Act and it is designed to help protect young people from the dangers of the web. In 2006 a bill called the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) was proposed and while it made it through the House of Representatives easily it did not get passed by the United States Senate. DOPA proposed that schools and libraries block all social networking and online chat websites to protect students from online predators. Many groups though felt that what DOPA proposed was not appropriate and that instead students should be educated about those types of websites. The new bill was designed in the hope that students will learn how to deal with things such as cyberbullying, and how to appropriate communicate through social networking sites with putting themselves into danger or getting themselves into trouble.

I think that this new bill is a good idea and that all schools should considers taking part in this. The bill states that only schools receiving money for a certain type of program are required to participate but I think that all schools should consider educating their students about the dangers of online social networking. An appropriate time in my mind for school to begin teaching this would be when students first enter middle school. I believe it is around this age that young students will really begin to get involved with online social networking. The internet can be very dangerous and students may get themselves into trouble if they are not fully educated on the dangers of the web.