
Libraries have become a broadband lifeline for students - pshapiro99
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/03/cloud-changes-school-3/
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lebanon_tn
I live in a suburb of Los Angeles and I occasionally do work at a local
library branch. I overhear a lot of the patrons' conversations at the
reference desk. It's astounding how much people still struggle to find quality
information in "the information age". It's no surprise given the rise of
poorly vetted articles spread on social media.

I realize how much of a role librarians can play in guiding people towards
more reliable information sources. The key takeaway from the article shared is
that libraries are still effective places for people to build self-reliance
with regard to information seeking. It's an important skill that doesn't
always get taught in schools for whatever reason.

~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
I believe that the ability to filter out low quality is a symptom of the
declining role that libraries play in our educational system. I was privileged
enough to go to schools that had libraries and trained librarians attached.
Part of our curriculum included a library class in which the librarians taught
us to investigate the credibility of a piece by actually reading the sources
cited.

Modern resources such as Wikipedia are a treasure, but are only valuable if
examined with a critical eye.

Support your local libraries, especially their outreach programs.

~~~
late2part
I respect your opinion and the belief that library education continues.

I think a far greater cause is the lack of critical thinking taught in
schools, the lack of engaged debate and encouraging people to think for
themselves and gather their own information. We had to write persuastive
papers, research topics from encyclopedias, etc. It seems kids don't do that
in school these days. (get off my lawn)

~~~
lebanon_tn
FWIW the patrons I mentioned seem to skew older. Often they are convinced that
the mainstream media or local government body x is stifling coverage of some
news story they want to know more about. These are generally along the lines
of the "pizzagate" story. One woman recently was convinced the government was
blocking the AM radio broadcast of some political commentator.

I want to highlight that these are completely normal looking middle aged men
and women that do not appear to be under the influence of drugs. These are not
the (false) stereotypical backwoods conspiracy nuts. Again, this is suburban
Los Angeles. I don't know what their educational levels are or where they
attended school, but clearly (and stating the obvious) -- our educational
system is failing to impart basic research and critical thinking skills to
huge sections of our population.

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
I'm willing to bet that many younger people are skeptical of mainstream media
nowadays, too. The collusion between media and the DNC to suppress Sanders
from being the democratic nominee made me bitter at least, and I'm willing to
bet it's made a lot of other people bitter, too. Then with the blatant
clickbait claims that Pewdiepie is racist, white people cause all of our
problems, and "8 [whatever] you just CAN'T live without" posts, I don't see my
trust in media ever returning.

~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
I've thought about that recently. The right type of skepticism came out of the
election. I'm grouping all sides/factions together and, I may be wrong, but I
don't see it as an increase in critical thinking. I just see it as an outright
dismissal of the credibility of any information coming from the nebulous
establishment or mainstream, accompanied by an acceptance of any conspiracy
theory that paints the mainstream in a negative light. It's skepticism that
discriminates based upon the messenger, not critical analysis of the content
of the message.

I joke, but I also weep knowing that if there were an article that claimed
that either candidate supported relaxing or increasing regulations on the
chemical dihydrogen monoxide, a significant number of people would think it
was a serious issue without actually researching it.

Just my 2c regarding PewDiePie: He may be a youtube star, but he not a
comedian and not humorous IMO. Don't make jokes about touchy subjects if you
aren't exceptionally funny or have a very thorough and intimate understanding
of the subject. There's a reason Louis C.K. can do skits on controversial
subjects without being pilloried, he's not a crass amateur. If no one laughs,
at best it comes off as insensitive. Also, his fan base is primarily 12-15 yr
olds, not exactly old enough to understand the subtleties of satire. Kramer's
racist rant post-Seinfeld at least was aimed at adults.

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clumsysmurf
Sadly though, Trumps budget would completely eliminate the Institute of Museum
and Library Services. This would be devastating for library services cross the
country.

[http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2017/03/president-
s-b...](http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2017/03/president-s-budget-
proposal-eliminate-federal-library-funding)

~~~
nojvek
Yep. Why do we need libraries? We should instead fund the military with
billions of dollars because that's how we make this country great.

~~~
najati83
Well... that's actually true. The US are where they are because of their
military power and intelligence.

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sametmax
You don't build tanks and planes without them. Nuclear bombs without them.

Look at south korea. Plenty of military, no brain.

~~~
astebbin
> Look at south korea. Plenty of military, no brain.

I'm genuinely curious - what did you mean by this?

~~~
lenkite
I think he meant North Korea. But they did build a Nuclear Bomb (or rather got
the tech successfully loaned from China)

~~~
tooltalk
According to some high-ranking North Korean defectors, they actually built it
themselves with no direct assistant from China or Russia -- which explains why
they are so crappy. Their nuclear program is still young and poorly funded.

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itchyjunk
I volunteered at my local library and they were struggling at times in terms
of man power. I think they had too much responsibility but the budget of
someone who handles books only. Books, Internet, Movies and music, Free lunch
for kids under 18, Some computer classes occasionally, Meeting areas for
adults, Club activities for kids, Occasionally local cops organized "Pokemon
Go with an Officer", magazines, subscription to many newspapers, etc etc. Most
people don't think of volunteering in libraries either. They were back logged
with shelving out the books that hadn't been checked out in a while. Without
doing this, they can't really keep getting new books. Trying to manage the
CD/DVD is also more hassle than you think. You have to regularly clean it and
get rid of the ones thats too damaged. My college library is decent too.
Nothing like the public one. Especially considering the college one probably
is better funded. A lot of people from a lot of different age group depend on
the library for the internet though.

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27182818284
If you haven't been near your public library's internet area for a while, you
should go--it is an eye opener to see not only that they are full to capacity,
but also that there is often a wait list involved.

~~~
wjossey
I was in Boston last week on business, and I took a meeting at the Boston
Public Library downtown in Copley. I had the exact same thought walking
through that area on a Saturday morning. It was packed (although not quite to
capacity). I casually observed what was on screens, and it was everything from
Facebook, to games, to Wikipedia.

~~~
nck4222
I suppose I haven't been to many large main branch libraries, but the BPL main
branch is amazing to me. The building itself is incredible but the services
they provide are top notch.

It hosts great scheduled talks/discussions (for instance on Tuesday Neil
Gaiman will be there for an on-stage interview).

The quiet workspaces are great places to get work done, and something about
the architecture/interior/history really helps keep one motivated while there.

Maybe this is normal for every state but any resident of MA is eligible to get
a library card. It's worth it for the digital rentals alone.

They also host free tours of the building, which I haven't done yet but have
been meaning to.

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loeg
Certainly rings true here.

Anecdote: My cousin lives in a rural area and is enrolled in college while
working. His only internet at home is satellite, so to do his online homework
he has to drive to the library to use the wifi.

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petra
Once we had a dream of sharing wifi among each other. What happened to that?

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Administrative overhead and piracy issues?

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rb808
Ironically we go to the library much less now that its easy to borrow ebooks
with kindle and reading apps. overdrive is great. I was starting to see a
future without libraries.

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
The libraries here seem to have transitioned heavily to services and tech.

The computers have not only internet, but MS Office and Adobe products, and I
see everything from playing games and social media to job hunting and learning
being done on them. (There's even a special bank of computers with resources
for job hunting downtown.)

Pretty much every day, the library holds some kind of starting a business,
learning to use tech, ESL, or other kind of class.

Then there's the cultural shows (opera, movies, story readings) and free tax
prep services at the central branch downtown.

The library also provides desks to work at, which are used by students (HS and
college), professionals, the homeless, etc. The value of a workspace in the
city is itself fairly large. I made frequent use of it when working as a
freelancer. Cheaper than coworking space, cafe on site, reliable internet,
etc.

And of course, the library is still a library. Their ebook collection is
nowhere near the size and scope of their physical book collection. Not just
the normal stuff of _modern_ books, but fairly large archives of things like
financial reports, magazine editions, etc stretching back nearly 100 years
(longer in a few cases), a rare book collection, specialty archives, a
collection of official government documents, and probably more Im forgetting.

That isn't stuff I need every day, most of my borrowing is (or could be)
ebook/audiobook, but I think the city would be poorer without a publicly owned
archive of history, even if there were digital copies available. There's
something about reading a book older than your great grandparents that digital
copies don't replace.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
People have a hard time realizing libraries are so much more than books these
days. I'm a former library employee, and it was always interesting seeing how
the library adapted to interests and needs of the community.

My local library now has as big of a movie rental library (for free!) as any
Blockbuster back in the day, has 3D printers available for use, and office
areas meant for use by startups needing some space to work.

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
I knew I was forgetting things!

The library has an extensive DVD collection (TV, movies, etc), CD collection
(music, etc), script collection (plays and other theater), sheet music
collection, music practice rooms, and of course, a foreign language collection
for all the kinds of media.

Oh! And a collection of maps, covering both a large geographic area _and_ over
time so you can see the evolution of local cities. (Actually, 3 map
collections -- US government Dept of Interior/USGS, other broad scale ones,
and then a special collection for local ones.)

Im pretty sure I'm _still_ forgetting things. The library system is actually
kind of awe-inspiring in what they manage to collect and archive. Once you
consider their relationships with local university archives, other cities, and
county level systems, their total system is staggering.

I could never say enough good things about the library, and it's one of the
best civic investments we make because it does so many things at once.

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nimos
I'd love for libraries to get involved more in tech. I think they are really
the ideal public sponsored unit to move quickly and break things in a way that
school's aren't.

I have a nephew who is 2.5 with 2 uncles involved in tech and his dad writes
some code part time. We've already talked about getting him into programming
and electronics.

As technical skills become more and more important I worry that the school
system just isn't fast enough to adapt and there is going to be a massive
inequality between kids who have relative/parents who encourage the
development of these skills and those who don't.

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bluedino
My local library has 250mbs of fiber going to it. Nothing amazing in the days
of gigabit but it's by far the best free internet access you can get. However,
they have it locked down to just web traffic. You can't use GitHub, download
any software, SSH into a server...

