Libraries. A place to go and find books, hang out, and find information. The home of books and computers. A meeting place for nerds and geeks. A place to experience new worlds and to expand minds. Libraries have been a common place for people to get together and study, experience new worlds, and research things. Libraries are not going extinct. Instead, they are evolving along with the human race. They still find ways to read books even without the actual paper copies.
The Lincoln Northeast media center is an amazing place for people to come into and be exposed to different cultures. They are plucked from reality and taken to different worlds that show them a new look at the world and our reality that are only known to the author and those who have already read the book. So many students come into the media center to enjoy the calmness and serenity that the room holds inside of its four walls.
There are all kinds of books that students enjoy reading about. Reference, fiction, non-fiction, dystopian, paranormal, romance, the list goes on and on. Paper, audio, and ebooks. There are different mediums. “People’s imaginations have really sparked,” librarian specialist Mrs. Jeanette Dorn says. There are a lot more ideas and genres now than there were before. Although some books get outdated, people “still read some of the classics,” according to librarian Mrs. Mary Southworth.
Reference books. Are they extinct? Nope, they are still around. “I’ve seen more reference go out this week than in the past three years,” Mrs. Southworth says. Reference books used to stay in the library all the time, except for when checked out for overnight. Now that people have the internet, the reference books are able to leave the library more often than before.
What is the most common books that are checked out? Well, fiction books are the most commonly checked out in the library here at Northeast. These are the dystopian societies, zombies, alien invasions, etc. The really cool, interesting books. Next up on the list of most commonly checked out are the nonfiction books. These are the more formal, educational books. The ones you can do research on. Next is the reference books. The “finding other books for certain researchy type things” books.
Some students love the actual paper books. They love the “smell of the paper, the feeling of a new book” according to Mrs. Dorn. Others enjoy the convenience of an e-book. Some like the audio books. But many like all of the choices. Because people have choices, this gives them a range of options to pick from. They are able to pick from different types of books, which allows people to pick which one is easiest for them to use. It’s all about convenience nowadays. “Most kids love the technology books only for the convenience,” says Mrs. Dorn. It’s really all about “individual preference.”
Technology as a whole has changed a lot since the 1940s. Back then, there was no technology, except for the first radios, cameras and telephones. It was primarily books that were being used for research and for fun reading. The reference book section was thriving at beginning. Nowadays, people have computers, smartphones, and other elaborate technological things. It is mostly technology now although sometimes people still do use books.
“Archives get bigger and are going online,” says Mrs. Dorn. It’s becoming easier to access books and to check them out now that technology has been invented. Books are becoming “digitized” and are becoming “easier and quicker” to use according to Mrs. Southworth. Since she checks out books for the Northeast library, she has to do all the hard stuff of checking out the books for students.
Andrew Carnegie donated money to libraries so that they could be built. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between the years 1883 and 1929, according to Map Timeline of Carnegie Libraries in the United States 1890-1921. 1,679 of the 2,509 libraries built were made in the U.S. according to Andrew Carnegie’s Story. He spent $55 million of his wealth on libraries. That’s a lot of money for the libraries!
The librarians are able to find things easier now since technology has been made and is used for the libraries. Say goodbye to card catalogues that take forever to look through and say hello to the internet, a fast and friendly tool that helps with finding books and other ideas that people are looking for. How fun it was to look through card catalogues, organizing them, and make sure they are all there. Yeah, such fun.
Many students come and go through the media center for reading, research, and other things. The students of today’s media center enjoy many of the pleasures of not having to struggle to find a book that they need for doing research. Everything is a click away now, easy as pie, unlike back in the day, when looking up things was as easy as 3.14, for the nerds. Next time, check out a book and watch the process of checking out the book. It’s simple and easy now, but long ago, it used to take forever and was difficult. So thank the librarians at Northeast next time you get a book checked out. They deserve it for all the work they’ve done.