Libraries ARE the #1 provider of FREE content. For EVERYONE, and not just “society’s leaders and innovators”.

Part of the problem is that school libraries, and to some extent academic libraries, have done a poor job of providing the average person with a broad and clear understanding of how to find authoritative information using libraries, government databases, and other tools.
Despite a lot of money being spent on information literacy, most people are confused about how to find good information, so they try Google and take what it gives them, or they give up.

Another part of the problem is that libraries have not marketed their services with the sophistication of private enterprise. A person’s conscious awareness can only juggle so many competing impulses at one time, and a low key service is not likely to occupy a strong position. This is kind of the problem with garden food: no one has an incentive to convince the public to plant their own organic gardens, even though people would be better off eating fresh organic vegetables out of their own gardens. There are plenty of advertisements, though, for soda, burgers, and cereal made of sugar.

If ALA wanted to regain some relevance, one way to do that would be a really good national advertising campaign for libraries. I’m not talking about putting more READ posters in libraries. I’m talking about Internet, magazine, and television advertisements that are quirky, fun, and polished.

Have you seen the stats on people who smoke, are fat, and gamble? They are overwhelmingly NOT the socioeconomic elite.

Also, I have to say again that it’s GREAT to see other people in the profession post things that I’ve been thinking since I got in the game, but can’t find anyone else around me to act on!

It is cheaper than cable, less of a hassle than the Redbox/video rental store, and more comfy than the movie theatre.

The only real issue I have is that the separate plans are not equal in their movie offerings: some are only in DVD format, so a lot of us cheapos are subscribing to both.

Tee hee hee.

Anyway, I don’t usually complain about these things, but if you’re someone (like me) who has only set up a Netflix account in the past year, you don’t think of the current set up as “one DVD at a time and FREE unlimited streaming” – you think of it as $9.99 for the service which has always been in place since you’ve been a Netflix member – one DVD at a time, and unlimited streaming. Not “free”. I didn’t go from getting a DVD at a time for $9.99 a month to getting that AND unlimited streaming – the deal I chose was, from the beginning, $9.99 for both services. I’m one of those people who don’t watch many DVDs, hence the one DVD at a time plan – I really tend to think of it as $9.99 for streaming with the option for an occasional DVD. Some months, I don’t get any DVDs at all. But I do want the OPTION of getting a DVD now and then (and don’t want to deal with Redbox and finding a time to return a movie on time). That was why this current plan worked well. I don’t really want to pay $7.99 for each service. It’s not that $16 / month is that much – $6.00 extra is nothing. It’s that it’s a 60% price increase all of a sudden and I feel like there is now less flexibility. And if you’re a new member, the fact that Netflix hasn’t raised their prices in ages is meaningless.

My husband is so outraged he wants to have TWO accounts – one for Netflix for streaming and one for Blockbuster, which apparently plans to undercut the Netflix DVD price by a buck or two. Now HE is being ridiculous. I’ll suck it up and pay the extra amount, it’s just annoying. I certainly have no interest in dealing with two separate accounts to save $1.00 a month or something.

I also don’t see this price increase as paying more for more services. I will continue to use Netflix in the same way as I always did.

The high value I spoke about in my earlier comment was in “content curation, cultivation and access”. It has nothing to do with servicing only elites and intellectuals but rather in selecting the most high quality content — be it a mystery, a history, a comic book, whatever. I’d trust someone like Nancy Pearl to make those assessments on my behalf any day rather than some marketing specialist at a large publishing house or entertainment studio.

I can rely on Amazon & RedBox to tell me what content is new or popular. I’d like to be able to rely on my libraries to help me know what’s good.