The Future is So Bright …..

 

In the national bestseller, Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam described a North American society that was losing the bonds of community and trust - a society that was characterized by isolation of individuals and families.  One major symptom of this pattern was the loss of community organizations and social groups – bowling leagues, fraternal organizations, and block parents.  The picture painted was bleak and left many asking “how can we improve this?”  How can we create a engaged community characterized by civic vitality?

Seeking an answer to this question, Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, visited places across the country where individuals and groups are engaged in unusual forms of social activism and civic renewal. These are people who are renewing their communities and investing in new forms of “social capital.” His follow up book, Better Together describes a dozen innovative organizations that are re-weaving the social fabric of our society and brings the hopeful news that our civic institutions are taking new forms to adapt to new times and new needs.

One of the innovative organizations highlighted in Better Together is the innovative Chicago public library system which has addressed this social problem by redefining itself and rethinking the very core of what defines a library to become a community development powerhouse taking a lead role to become an agent of social engagement and change.

As the Pickering Public Library approaches the development of its next strategic plan, libraries such as Chicago and Aarhus provide examples of responsiveness and innovation lighting the way to a bright future for public libraries.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”.  Charles Darwin

 

Online Reading Vs. Print

E-books are very popular right now given with the release of the Apple iPad.Some libraries have tentatively begun loaning content and/or readers to the community.

At Pickering, staff are testing out Sony e-readers, Kindles and even the Apple iPad (acquired by our ihelp specialist via eBay).  Staff have given them the "beach and bed" test, but not the third "b" - bath.  Most of them have tested quite well in terms of useability, comfort, power, etc. which was quite surprising to most of us boomer booklovers.

As with any new technology that will be widely adopted, we must approach it with a consciously critical perspective and there have been a number of studies which have looked at the difference between online reading vs print.  According to Anne Mangen, an associate prof of literacy studies at Norway's University of Stavanger, reading online may not be as rewarding – or effective – as the printed word. The reasons: The process involves so much physical manipulation of the computer that it interferes with our ability to focus on and appreciate what we're reading; online text moves up and down the screen and lacks physical dimension, robbing us of a feeling of completeness; and multimedia features, such as links to videos and animations, leave little room for imagination, limiting our ability to form our own mental pictures to illustrate what we're reading.

Richard Long of the International Reading Association, a nonprofit organization of literacy professionals in Newark, Del., says more research needs to be done to study the effects of online reading on different users. For instance, he says, many older people may absorb more or learn faster by flipping through pages, because their brains have been trained to read hard copy, whereas younger readers may learn faster digitally, because they're accustomed to working online. "Previous experience has a tremendous impact on rate and thoroughness of learning," he says. "The actual learning phenomenon is the same at the end of the day."