Are Libraries Too Outdated to Be Of Any Real Use? [guest post]

By-Line: This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of engineering degrees online.  Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson83@yahoo.com.

Are you interested in writing a guest post for this spineless? blog, on a topic of interest to members of Heriot-Watt University?  Maybe you’re a student or lecturer here at Heriot-Watt.  If so, why not get in touch.

Are Libraries Too Outdated to Be Of Any Real Use?

It was one of my favorite places to hang out as a kid, simply because my book-crazy mind could not begin to fathom that there was this whole building full of books just waiting to be read. I would spend hours just going through the books and magazines that filled the place, from roof to floor. While I did not realize at that young age that a library was where people went to gain more knowledge or do research for their college papers and thesis, the number of people who spent day after day poring over heavy books and tomes did instill in my mind that this was a very studious place, one that was literally a storehouse of knowledge and learning.

Can the same be said of libraries today, I wonder. Yes, they do still hold a multitude of books, but are they mostly outdated and in serious need of a revamping? When books still talk of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, and the Apartheid policy in South Africa, you know it’s time for a serious overhaul. And it’s not just the history books that are outdated; geographical information as we know it is changing because of the vagaries of the weather, eroding boundary lines, changing political affiliations and depleted natural resources.

Other subjects too are undergoing a sea change – new words are being added to languages, some of which are becoming extinct; medical information and data being updated regularly and technology is changing by the microsecond. So it is imperative that if libraries are to stay current and relevant, they must be updated whenever change occurs.

It is admittedly hard to continue to update books because it is an expensive proposition, but if libraries are to continue to exist and thrive in today’s world of instant information on the Internet, they must be able to compete with the fluid nature of the World Wide Web. They must meet standards, and for this, it requires considerable effort on the part of staff members, patrons and librarians. They must fight for the funding required to update their library, and strive to incorporate the changes that are necessary with the passage of time.

Adrienne Carlson

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