I live, eat, sleep and breath the web. And then I read this blog post over at ZDNet entitled ‘Young adults are actually using libraries‘ and I realised how true it is.

Christopher Dawson’s post was inspired by a recent library demographic study reported by CNN.
Without thinking about it, our local library has played an increasingly important role in our lives. Depsite our home having two laptops, a desktop, an iPod, two cellphones and a console connected to the web, there are still some comppelling reasons for going to the library.

It’s our offline Facebook

We use the community notice board (I got a sweet deal on a Sony Trinitron off one of these notice boards). It’s also where the local municipality display planning notices and other important documents. We sometimes meet friends (or at least neighbours) in the library, and although I try and dodge these socil meetings I can appreciate it’s value.

It’s the local Google

Apart from the ‘official’ information, the librarians themselves are a great source of information, especially about local happenings. To be honest, my mother was a librarian in a small town (Heidelberg) for seven years, and I know how much information they have.Some of it might be called ‘gossip’ but it’s still valuable.

It’s still connected

Our library has two computers connected to the interwebs, so I can still hop on quickly and check Amazon (or Facebook) for that book suggested by a friend. It can also be used for some preliminary research, before delving into the library’s reference section.

It’s child friendly

I’m not just talking about the soft toys in the corner. Although my little girls are (very) proficient with the PS2 controller, they’re even better at pulling books off a shelf and quietly paging through it. OK, perhaps ‘quietly’ is the wrong word, but it’s certainly easier (and safer) than browsing the web.
Perhaps you might not be as fortunate with your local library, but it seems after all that the web did not spell the death of the local library. Ours is certainly being used – for more than just books.