Public Libraries: Even More Important in a Digital Age

Link to October 21 St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, "Public libraries’ potential grows ever larger in digital age". (Thanks to Resource Shelf.)

Excerpt: What exactly will libraries have to “check out” in the years ahead? Plenty.

Ironically, the digital revolution has increased demand for the fundamental services that libraries provide: Helping people understand how information is organized and how to find the best sources of the information they seek, whether it’s in the library stacks or on a digital file in some remote location.

Libraries that play their cards right find themselves moving into a new golden era. St. Louis stands at the leading edge of these possibilities.

Waller McGuire, is director of the St. Louis Public Library, one of the best-supported public library systems in the nation. He presides over a collection of more than 4 million items, housed at 16 facilities throughout the city, supported by a $22 million annual budget. He’s seen patron visits steadily increase by more than 1 million per year over the last decade — driven in part by a large investment in the renovation of community branch libraries.

He expects visits to exceed 3.5 million in 2009, an increase of between 5 to 10 percent from 2008.