Comments on: Some Reasons Libraries Wouldn’t be Founded

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:28:32 +0000

Puzzled librarian, I have now seen NEW computers so cheap and Old computers so much cheaper [basically, the same age as those in the lilbrary] that it makes no sense ot continue riding the Digital Divide bandwagon. What was supposed to happen, these people were NEVER supposed to be able to get a compuer? And then so many now have the little handhelds that it’s no longer possible to say who the haves and havenots are.

Those who desire a computer and the internet will make it a priority.

By: RPG Librarian

RPG Librarian — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:11:48 +0000

Hi Puzzled Librarian.

I think AL is speaking for the kind of people who took place in the Brenton Foundation and Kellogg Foundation’s 1996 study “Buildings, Books and Bytes”. They were the people who would like to see libraries run by volunteers.

By: Puzzled Librarian

Puzzled Librarian — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:21:15 +0000

AL, surely you cannot be serious with this statement…”As for those people who still have no connection to the Internet, they don’t matter enough to count. There aren’t that many of them, certainly not enough to vote themselves a public Internet cafe. These days both computers and Internet connections are cheap and getting cheaper, and it’s possible the “digital divide” will close on its own in a decade or two, just like the “refrigerator divide” and the “television divide” did. We are approaching a time when every home and possibly every person will have a device with an Internet connection the way they all have refrigerators, toilets, telephones, and televisions, which wasn’t the case a century ago.

Working in the front lines, I see people every day who can NOT afford a computer much less the internet. People without jobs or jobs that pay minimum wage or at best barely more than that. It’s a struggle for them to buy food much less the internet or a computer. I’ve always enjoyed your rants here but seriously, open your eyes and take a look around. This country is in serious economic trouble. Also, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that poor people all smoke or drink. In reality, only 21% of this country still smoke. The poor or working poor make up a far larger percentage that that. Well, off to buy Jimmy Jo Bob his carton of smokes and a six pack of beer before we go to da woods and kilt that there deer on the back 40…Ya’ll come back now ya hear?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:58:39 +0000

By definition, real lefties cannot laugh, our pain is too great, our empathy for the weak and defenseless to deep……go Huskies.

By: confuzzled

confuzzled — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:04:27 +0000

I am confused. You seem to think the worst of libraries and the future of librarians. Why are you a librarian again? I like warranted criticism and sauciness as much as the next guy…but every once in a while, I desire a hallmark moment. This is that time.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:30:47 +0000

Apparently the main qualification for being a “real lefty” is having absolutely no sense of humor.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:31:03 +0000

Actually, the name is Glenn Storbeck. And I am not a fan of AL or Library Journal in the slightest. As I like to say, I never earn my pay more than when I am reading the bunk. I am a real lefty (john Stewart is not), and think most of the library industry leadership is a bunch of clowns – funny, but not the ha-ha type. The censorhip (called moderation, only a librarian could rationalize that) performed on this blog is a fine example of why LJ stinks.

Never bought into Obama, and he did make the “police state” worse. Expanded the wars, won’t prosecute admitted war criminals. Now a tax structure that is bankrupting my country for the benefit of a very few shall be continued. From the day in 2008 that Paul Volcker said he liked BO, I ran.

Anonymity is the key. We offer it where I work. It is the only place anyone can get it. Everything we say on the phone, email, print, almost think about (and Homeland Security is working on that) is being kept, forever.

As for the end result, ask the folks just charged with materially supporting terrorism for protesting at the Republican Convention in 2008.

My poor country.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:42:19 +0000

Who knew that Glenn Beck is a fan of the AL?

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 02:09:57 +0000

AL, you are a subversive, good for the world. Keep it up, and soon you will be talking about ‘the big lie’. In all seriousness, no one has ever done propaganda better than the glorious USA of the 21st century. America has been run by a select few ever since the Constitution was rammed through. Note, only 6 of the signers of the declaration of I. signed the Constit., and 4 of them were from Pennsylvania where the debate was about 20 minutes long.

The number 1 offer we can make to our patrons is anonimity in the age of the “super-police-state.” Every email is cataloged, every website visited tracked, every thought monitored.

Welcome to the War of Terror. And Obama has made it much worse than W. and Dick did.

My poor country.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:38:16 +0000

And here I thought all that talk of plutocracy was for my eyes only, you saucy minx you.