$39.5 Million Hi-Tech Library Opens In Illinois 98
The new $39.5 million Fountaindale Public Library features: flat-screen TVs, video games, self-checkout stations, a variety of e-readers, and a cafe. Library officials say the new facility is a blueprint for libraries of the future, and will focus on using new technologies. From the article: "The Fountaindale Public Library, with its state-of-the-art, Wi-Fi equipped space, is starkly different from the previous antiquated library, a nearby one-story brick structure built in 1975 that awaits the wrecking ball. Officials are hopeful the new facility attracts a demographic libraries haven't seen in a number of years — young professionals."
Deficit == 50% of operating budget (Score:0, Informative)
Illinois is broke dot com [illinoisisbroke.com]
Space age libraries. Woohoo.
Re:libraries (Score:5, Informative)
Part of why we need libraries is a total failure of informational literacy. Many of the people we see today have no clue how to tell the difference between REAL and NOT REAL (hence, people who think World News Digest or Fox News are "real": they lack the skill set to determine what information has value and what does not.)
Libraries are also tremendous community and learning centers. We're really the center of democracy and freedom. We aid the local schools, the senior centers, the youth assistance groups, and provide training and access to job searching. A community without a Library is a community without a heart: it will wither, suffer and die.
Maybe one day a level of informational literacy will exist. Maybe one day it'll be taught in schools, from Pre-School through College/University. That day is not today, and not likely in this century. Modern Librarians are experts on finding information, and making sure it's good information.
Need to know more? Look up multiple resources on Informational Literacy. Just for an example: http://tln.lib.mi.us/searchpath/ [lib.mi.us]