Bespectacled old librarians shushing patrons who dare to open their mouths? Gone. Electric typewriters as cutting-edge technology? Yeah, right. Overstuffed card catalog? It’s digital now. Books that are only available in paper form? So last decade. Last place you’d expect to see a rock band? Not anymore.
There are those people who will tell you that these stuffy, musty public institutions surely are in their final days. There are those who ask, “Why frivolously waste $19 million making the downtown Baton Rouge branch bigger?”
The same people are convinced that the Internet [led by Google] thrust a sword into the gut of libraries and that iPad and Kindle will strangle the last breath out of them. After all, e-books are predicted to constitute 40% of all book sales in as little as three to four years. Heck, even Barnes & Noble has put itself up for sale.
In reality, public library parking lots are packed. Patrons’ usage has accelerated for the better part of a decade and is setting new records—particularly during the recession, according to separate studies by the American Library Association and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Nationwide, visits to public libraries last year totaled 1.4 billion, or nearly five per capita. That’s up 17% from two years ago.
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