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“All the heroes had crew cuts, platinum-blonde wives and drove Corvettes. The media was devoted to this cult of innocence.” — Rinker Buck, “Flight of Passage: A True Story”

Many learned to read using the Dick and Jane reading primer, “Look up, Baby. Look up and see Dick. See Dick go up. See Dick go up, up, up!” The series fell out of favor not only for its methodology, whole word vs. phonics, but for its stereotyped depiction of society. In these times it is best not to think in terms of what we expect or want things to be, but what they are.

Thinking of public libraries in the Age of Information, the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, might come to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Literacy of the past, reading and writing, now includes digitalization, conversion of text, images, or sound into computer processable format. A profound change for public libraries, whose primary mission has been collecting, cataloguing, and circulating books and other resources without cost.

Economist Panos Mourdoukoutas, in an opinion-editorial dated July 2018, suggested books would become obsolete and public libraries, would become irrelevant. After several hundred thousand twitter attacks within hours, the URL of his comments was removed by the publisher. Making assumptions that are over-simplified, based on unchallenged information is a risk for us all, electronic technology amplifies the risk.

The statement, “people don’t read anymore,” is an observation made in the context of sitting in a quiet place reading a book. If you think of reading as what it fundamentally is, decoding and comprehending symbols, there are people who read constantly. Using the smartphone and laptop, while watching television — people are engulfed in information, fragmented and without thorough examination. For this, there is concern.

“To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it is useful.” — Ming Ming Hsu, Neuroscience, University of California, Berkley

Much of the information to the brain is like junk food to the stomach. Herbert Lin, Cyber Policy and Security, Stanford University, sees peril in this tendency, the willingness to accept popularity over accuracy. His concern is that false information can be used to undermine confidence in public institutions, threatening the future of humanity.

Public libraries have a job of work to do. R. David Lankes, author of “The Atlas of Librarianship,” envisions a bright future for libraries: “The concept of a library is evolving faster than the terms for describing the change. Today the library is seen as a movement. Not a place, but a community-wide effort to improve the lives of community members through knowledge.”

In recent weeks people have spoken in support of the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library’s millage renewal, that emphasized service and the sharing of resources. Appreciation was expressed for programs with topics from snowshoeing to cooking. The library maintains a commitment to reading and stays current with technology. Visit it today.

“All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here I am, please tell me your story, here is my story, please listen.” — Susan Orlean, “The Library Book”




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