This is Internet On The Air, I'm Todd Mundt. The Internet is great for finding
information, and lots of it. But will the World Wide Web ever replace your neighborhood
public library? Details in a moment.
Funding Credit: Internet On The Air is a production of the University of
Michigan School of Information and Michigan radio, made possible by a grant from the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation.
Many of us grew up using libraries that had a card catalogue and those
paper index cards in sliding drawers that helped you find a book or other publication.
Today, card catalogues are all but obsolete, as they have been replaced by computer
terminals. Public libraries also offer Internet access and services. This raises the
question of whether the brick and mortar library will ever go the way of the card
catalogue and be replaced by an on-line substitute.
Students at the University of Michigan School of Information have been involved in a
project to determine what a public library might look like if it existed only on the
Internet. The Internet Public Library maintains a collection of web sites by adapting
traditional library techniques for selection, evaluation and organization. It also offers
services like an e-mail reference desk and a digital story time. Since the Internet Public
Library began three years ago, it has received more than 7 million visits from people in
135 countries.
Joe Janes is director of the Internet Public Library. He says it's a good place to
learn about certain topics, like popular culture, and he says it also serves as an
incubator for new approaches, such as web-based exhibits of local collections. But Janes
says even though the Internet Public Library has attracted a lot of visitors, he doubts
that public libraries ever will switch to a completely on-line model. One of the main
obstacles for wider development of virtual resource centers is that the funding sources
for traditional libraries--usually property taxes--cannot be easily applied to an on-line
service.
To learn more about the Internet Public Library and to listen to an interview with Joe
Janes, visit our web site at www.iota.org. For Internet On The Air, I'm Todd Mundt.
