Take free Internet access. It’s fast becoming a common offering - and rightly so: easy availability of loads of information is what libraries are all about. But last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding free speech on the Net will make the jobs of many librarians harder. They can refuse to subscribe to Hustler magazine, but they can’t so easily keep its electronic equivalent off a computer screen. Now librarians have to decide how - or whether - to restrict what their patrons see. ““Some parents think we haven’t gone far enough,’’ says Arthur Dunphy, spokesman for the Boston Public Library, which recently installed filtering software on the computers used by children under 17. Those same kids may use adult, unfiltered computers with a permission slip from home. ““The problem with filters is that there’s a big difference between a 6-year-old and a 16-year-old,’’ says Judith Krug of the American Library Association.
At the same time, palatial new libraries are opening in cities around the country, brimming with the latest computer hardware. San Francisco’s was a huge success on opening day last year. But nine months later, city librarian Ken Dowlin - the force behind the new library - resigned under fire, amid nonstop complaints that the building was over budget, cumbersome to use and tightfisted with its books.
Sometimes the most up-to-date librar- ies simply lose track of their original missions. One scholar requested a book on economics at New York’s impressive, computer-rich Science, Industry and Business Library. The librarian looked at her in surprise. ““That was published in the ’50s,’’ he said. ““That’s not here. That’s old.''
Many of the problems hovering over the 21st-century library start in a traditional place: the budget. According to a recent survey conducted by Library Journal, technology costs at public libraries have soared 85 percent in the last two years. Many of the smaller libraries were forced to cut their book budgets to pay for technology. And investing in electronics means reinvesting in a few years. ““Purchasing equipment and software is a big enough budget problem, but keeping up with the new versions is going to be even worse,’’ says Karen Coyle, a Berkeley-based system analyst for the University of California. ““I want to say to Gates, “Thanks, but are you going to be here every three years to give us upgrades?’ ’’ And as any business that uses PCs knows, just keeping machines up and running costs money.
One of the most radical attempts at establishing a modern library appears to have crashed and burned in Hawaii late last month. Faced with budget cuts, but de- termined to go ahead with technological improvements, state librarian Bart Kane decided to streamline the function that actually keeps a library alive: collecting new books and materials. He gave the entire book-buying budget for the state library system to Baker & Taylor Books, a major wholesaler. Libraries commonly outsource many tasks, but to give up nearly all control of acquisitions was unprecedented. ““I thought we could lower our cost of operations and move librarians into jobs serving the public,’’ he says. ““It has not proven to be successful.''
Soon after the contract was signed in April 1996, Baker & Taylor began shipping books at a uniform rate of $20.94 per item. ““We got tons of paperback duplicates of hardcovers we already had,’’ says librarian Deborah Gutermuth. ““We got cheap series paperbacks, like “Sweet Valley High,’ and very few young-adult best sellers.’’ Librarian Sylvia Mitchell says most of the people she serves are kids and immigrants. ““I didn’t need seven copies of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back’,’’ she says. Finally the state Board of Education voted to end the contract. According to B&T, many of the librarians’ complaints were unfounded. ““We’re trying to modify the contract and make it workable,’’ says Jim Ulsamer, president of Baker & Taylor Books.
Hawaii’s experiment collapsed at least in part because it treated traditional library materials as if they were so many widgets, and librarians as if they were no more than tour guides to the Internet. As libraries reshape their budgets around the demands of technology, they’ll have to make tough choices. These days they can’t afford to make dumb ones.
THE CYBERRICH HAVE BEEN called extravagant for their taste in homes and cars but stingy when it comes to charity. Now two software titans may be changing that. Last week Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Oracle’s Larry Ellison pledged gifts to philanthropic causes totaling $300 million. Of the two donations, Ellison’s is more modest: Oracle will spend $100 million in an effort to place its future NetPC on the desk of every student in America. Gates will lay out $200 million of his own money over the next five years to put computers into libraries. Microsoft will match it with $200 million (retail value) worth of software. While skeptics wondered if Gates had deliberately upstaged his rival, philanthropists were elated. Said Peter Hero of the Community Foundation, ““Anything that gets the ball moving is positive as far as I’m concerned.''
