These articles for Thing 15 need to be carefully considered and constantly reviewed, in my opinion. There is no doubt that in the 10 years that I have been in the library things have changed dramatically. Gone are the days when we constantly flew to the stacks to find material for reports. It happens now, but much less often. Many of our customers have computers at home and only come to the library if the teacher says they must have a book source. Non-fiction circulation has dropped because of this, but at the same time, customers don't believe that a magazine on-line is actually that magazine. They think it is an internet source.
Many customers will do the work at home with our online catalog and then come in for what they want. We seem to be often improving our online catalog so that doing the work at home is easy and user-friendly. I don't think that you can underestimate the need for a living-breathing technology plan.
We received a teen grant at our library to be able to give to teens the technology that they want. This population is ahead of the game were technology is concerned. Some of these kids don't read or spell well, but they have a My Space site.
We are no longer the information marketplace-----we must adapt and live on the cutting edge of technology because if our customers can pass us by with all things technological, then there is no longer a need to come to the library. It's not just staying current for the heck of it-----it's called 'survival.'
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