on ... library funding

China Post editorial:



Even with support, public libraries' future in doubt

Taipei City Government came under attack from two city councilors last week for conditions in its public libraries. With tatty books, unhealthy environments and out-of-date or non-functioning equipment, the capital's libraries resembled secondhand bookstalls rather than places of learning and self-advancement, one of the critics claimed.

In response, the city government said that around NT$60 million was spent each year acquiring around 200,000 new books that were shared between the city's 55 public libraries — meaning they now have an average of 2.06 books for each citizen — and that a further NT$150 million had already been earmarked for a three-year makeover of their buildings and equipment.

This, in local-government speak, probably means that the councilors have a point. Who knows? Maybe they were just helping make it clear — or perhaps appear — that the general public is keen that money is spent and library services and facilities are maintained and improved.
But are people keen on libraries? After all, many of libraries' traditional functions are now also done — or are better done — by computers, the Internet and other IT developments. With education, health, housing, leisure, transportation and numerous other public services competing for slices of national and local budgets, perhaps the information revolution is rendering libraries a beloved but costly irrelevance. That will be for future historians to decide. At the moment, the question facing politicians is whether to keep funding libraries, and that facing librarians is to find imaginative and innovative roles to justify their institutions' continued existence.

That libraries have a proud history is beyond dispute. Starting with the private collections of emperors and kings, through the semi-public libraries of religious and academic institutions, to the truly public and publicly-funded libraries of the last century or two, libraries have made major contributions to most fields of human endeavor, and the European and North American practice of providing tax-dollar supported libraries in every city, town and even village, which were free for everyone to use, is a tradition that rightly spread around the world.

And even in the 21st century, while it is true to say that hardly anyone makes the trek to his or her local library to thumb an encyclopedia or check a telephone number in a far-off city as they would have done just a decade ago, it is equally true that hardly anyone downloads an entire novel from the Internet or reads it on a computer screen. So while libraries' reference sections are probably a thing of the past, their literature, humanities and popular science sections still have a great deal going for them. When public libraries in two U.S. cities closed their doors recently, local people opted for a slight increase in taxes to fund their re-opening, albeit with reduced hours.

But libraries, like people, cannot remain relevant simply because of their past histories, and it is fair to say that the world of librarianship is in a worldwide state of crisis. Librarians are the first to admit it — though many are no longer called librarians, but information specialists or some such — and are racking their brains to find new roles that continue their social relevance. With the help of government funds, most libraries are now equipped with computers, are connected to the World Wide Web and have online databases, meaning that although they may not be able to compete with the Internet in certain functions, at least they can tap into it.

Some libraries are focusing on particular needs of their communities, such as those cities in the United States with high proportions of immigrant residents, which are offering advice on citizenship applications and language services such as assistance with form filling. Elsewhere, many libraries are focusing on reading groups for toddlers and young children, or providing space for youth clubs and adult-education classes to meet. Similarly in Taiwan, libraries have experimented with 24-hour opening, staff-less branches or small outlets at MRT stations.

But libraries are not Internet cafe's, kindergartens or community centers, and they will have to find roles more uniquely connected with their primary book-, periodical- and information-related functions if they really are to survive.

Unfortunately, to date, this seems beyond the imaginations of most librarians, library users, and the politicians supporting them. Future proposals by library professionals include a great deal about improving environments, expanding services and making staff friendlier, but very few concrete innovative suggestions. They will have to do better.

But libraries deserve to be given more time. Just as a sports club does not sack its star athlete and stop his salary as soon as he enters a slump, so politicians should not turn against libraries, which have similarly strong track records, and discontinue their funding while the information revolution is still unfolding.