Technology means new chapter for libraries
Electronic readers, audio gadgets made available to patrons
Showing off Westerville’s reading gadgets are, from left, Jessica Curtis, Jessi Crim-Weithman and Linda Uhler.
Many embrace the concept.
“We’ve been dealing with rapidly changing tech for at least 25 years,” said Pat Losinski, director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
“The library decades from now will look different, no question,” he said. “But it will still be that cornerstone of the community.
“Oftentimes, there’s a thought that (a single technology) will change things like the flip of a switch, and it doesn’t.”
“We’ve added new media on top of the old,” said State Librarian Jo Budler. “I think taxpayers are actually getting more for their money, not less.”
Next year, she’ll host what she calls a two-day “tech petting zoo” to introduce new technologies to librarians.
“I want to get my hands on it before I get my patrons asking questions about it,” she said.
“I think we should be excited,” said Jessi Crim-Weithman, associate director of support services at the Westerville library. “I think it’s cool that there are so many ways to access information.”
A few years ago, Westerville bought several hundred Playaways, hand-held devices pre-loaded with audio books, from classics to current fiction. They circulate just like paper books and are popular with students who would rather listen to than read their assignments, said Crim-Weithman.
For the past four years, Columbus and 13 other area libraries have offered thousands of digital downloads, audio books, music and movies.
“People can get hung up on the container. But it’s the content, what you’re reading, and improving literacy that’s important,” said Robin Nesbitt, technical-services director at the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
With technology evolving so rapidly, libraries must decide when to latch on to the newest gadgets.
“We’re in the middle of a digital-content arms race,” said Don Yarman, assistant director of the Delaware district library system, where voters just passed a 10-year property tax to build another branch and expand the system’s collections.
Delaware also has about 200 Playaways, which are less expensive than books on compact discs, Yarman said.
Westerville also offers about 12,000 electronic books, 4,000 more than the Columbus system; they can be downloaded and read on home computers.
Library director Don Barlow isn’t sure whether e-books will last. Of the 4,000 patrons who have tried digital books, fewer than 3 percent have come back to try again, he said.
There have been no formal studies or focus groups to determine what this means, however.
At Worthington Libraries, free online subscriptions are popular, said Jeff Regensburger, adult-services librarian. Two of the most popular are Reference USA, which provides residential and business data to salespeople, job seekers and others, and Mango Languages, an interactive instructional program.
Still, jumping on the latest trend that then turns obsolete can be a waste of taxpayers’ money, Regensburger said.
“You don’t want to be the library that has a whole lot of Beta (video) tapes — the technology that goes away.”
