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Tuesday, 6th July 2010

Op/Ed by Marilyn Johnson: U.S. Public Libraries: We Lose Them at Our Peril

Once again writer and someone were proud to call a ResourceShelf pal, Marilyn Johnson, has done yet another important and wonderful job for the entire library community in an op/ed in today's Los Angeles Times.

As many of know, Marilyn is the author of the book, "This Book is Overdue," a title we posted about often when if was first released in February/March of this year. We'll post a couple of links to reviews and other materials below.

Today's Op/Ed is titled, "U.S. Public libraries: We Lose them At Our Peril."

Here's a Blurb:

The people who welcome us to the library are idealists, who believe that accurate information leads to good decisions and that exposure to the intellectual riches of civilization leads to a better world. The next Abraham Lincoln could be sitting in their library, teaching himself all he needs to know to save the country. While they help us get online, employed and informed, librarians don't try to sell us anything. Nor do they turn around and broadcast our problems, send us spam or keep a record of our interests and needs, because no matter how savvy this profession is at navigating the online world, it clings to that old-fashioned value, privacy. (A profession dedicated to privacy in charge of our public computers? That's brilliant.) They represent the best civic value out there, an army of resourceful workers that can help us compete in the world.

Source: Los Angeles Times

See Also: In this ResourceShelf post from March 15, 2010 we have reviews of and comments about "This Book is Overdue" From:

+ The New York Times
+ NPR
+ USA Today
+ Salon.com
+ Interview From the Newark Star-Ledger

The audiobook of "This Book is Overdue" is available as a free download from some libraries via OverDrive. You find out if your library has it using this page for the WMA Version or this page for the MP3 version.

Finally, you can you sample full text material from "This Book is Overdue" for free via Amazon.com's "Look Inside the Book" program. It's also a reminder that some books are available for preview from both Google Books and Amazon. Others from just one of the services. In this case, it's Amazon. Google Books does not provides any preview material.


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