The Internet, Networking, and the Public Library. Edited by Sarah Ormes and Lorcan Dempsey. London: UK Office for Library & Information Networking, 1997. 162p. ISBN 1-85604-202-2.

This book of essays contains considerable information on public– and staff–related UK Internet and networking activities in public libraries. Some half–dozen are discussed in great detail, while approximately a dozen others are described in essential detail. All of the authors but one are from the UK. (The exception is an American.)

My over–all enthusiasm was less than great based on the title of this work, but it steadily increased the more I read. I now enthusiastically recommend it to every public librarian. It is a timely volume, though it will date quickly as circumstances in public libraries change rapidly. To some extent it is reminiscent of early efforts by public libraries to make microcomputers available to the public, and to some extent there is an overlap in the services. Many of the projects described in the book provide word processing, database management, and other software packages to patrons. That is not the thrust of the book, however. Internet access and intranet networking are the two central themes of all of the projects described in the book. The problems with these services are evident and widespread, as well as philosophically difficult, and financially difficult to justify. The technology by which they are being delivered has hardly matured yet. Once we have high speed (broad bandwidth), then lower cost and a greater range of services will be available. However, even so, the book points out that libraries are in grave danger of becoming information dinosaurs in the new information age. A central problem, as I see it, is that none of the authors confronts the issue of the numbers of people served on a cost benefit analysis. The problem is not as evident in environments which have a limited service population, such as a university, but it is a serious problem in just about any public library. This would be a good topic for a second volume, or for essays.

Part I, on “Context”, contains three essays. The first is “Public Libraries in Their Political and Social Context”, by Geoffrey Hare. He discusses the overall problem of advancing technology for libraries. It is both a threat and a potential. “There is ... much gloom in the public library community and concern in the literary and ‘library loving’ worlds compounded by the mantras of the technological prophets that the book is dead and so will libraries be.” Technology and the future of the library make up a tormenting combination, at best. Libraries may continue to exist more because of people's and government's shortcomings than because of technology's advances. For example, the poor will always be with us; many people won't want to buy computers; and bestsellers, picture books, story time, and other public library attractions will continue to make some form of public meeting place for information popular. Hare presents a series of statistics, e.g., “recreational reading use of libraries... has declined by around 30 percent in the last twelve years”; the “omnivorous” reader is now seen mostly only in the over–60 population; and lending in many libraries has decreased by over 50 percent. He goes on. The conclusion he draws is that “networking” and other new technological developments offer us only way of preventing “a further serious deterioration in the provision of the core library services”. The key requirements for public libraries, in his estimation, are “consensus, collaboration, and conformity”.

The second essay, describing two Internet access surveys, one in the US and one in the UK, offers several interesting comparisons and also illustrates some trends. As for Internet access by libraries in the two countries, the US is far ahead of the UK. The reason given for this is the lack of government encouragement in the UK. One trend for both countries is that the larger the city a patron lives in, the more likely library Internet access is to be available. On the whole, there is less Internet access for patrons in the UK than in the US, though UK libraries tend to have more graphical (WWW) access than libraries in the US. Other interesting and useful statistics can also be drawn from the analysis.

The Croydon Libraries' Internet Project (CLIP) is described by Heather Kirby. CLIP began in September 1994 and ended in March 1996. Its purpose was to experiment with access to the Internet by various groups, including staff, adult users, and kids. Staff included twenty–six people who were given an introduction to the Internet and used “Stumpers”, an online database of questions, to learn about it. A group of twelve adults was given an introductory lesson about the Internet. They were taught the fundamentals of Netscape Navigator and other important programs, and were also shown a video. Twelve children, aged from five to fourteen, were also given Internet instruction. A special program of “Kids–Links” was loaded into the browser to facilitate its use by children. The essay goes on to describe the results of these experiments, and to tell how the information was used for further projects. Croydon Online is a related Internet project which Croydon Libraries manages. It has created a business registry online which has some 2,000 businesses listed.

Project EARL (Electronic Access to Resources in and through Libraries) was written about by John Dolan. EARL is a library cooperation project which, at last report, included more than 208 library authorities (as they are called in Great Britain). The purpose of the project was to “‘investigate the value of connecting public libraries to the Internet’ and the scope was intended to be as broad and flexible as necessary to fulfill this aim.” It utilized a number of interesting methods for both staff and public education and development. It is a worthwhile chapter to read for anyone planning to teach either children or adults how to use Internet protocols such as e–mail and telnet, and keyword searching, browsers and bookmarks, etc. Croydon Online may be reached at <http:www.croydon.gov.uk>.

Other projects which fill an entire chapter each are Capital Information Services, Input Output Centres, LOIS, and IT Point. Input Output Centres is particularly noteworthy, because it allowed a commercial firm to organize and set up a pay–as–you–go Internet service which shared the income with the library. Issues such as fee structure, training, services available, and marketing are interestingly discussed, as are the results of the project. IT Point is an Internet project based at Chelmsley Wood Library. It began in 1994, started to charge for the service in 1995, and is apparently still in operation. It began with six PCs which allowed a range of public access services, including Internet, E–mail, word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, database management, scanning, CD–ROM databases, computer magazines, and manuals. It has a full–time specialist staff. This I find to be very interesting and a good thing, as many of us have learned that it takes a lot of extra work to help the public use micros, and to keep the machines functioning properly. Their list of hardware and software is included. ITPOINT has a homepage at <http://www.itpoint.org.uk>. LOIS (Library Online Information Service) provides terminals of library and community information at a variety of locations in a rural area. It was originally a two–year project. Finding suitable community locations in which to place the terminals (information kiosks, for example) was difficult, since many small towns lack central town halls or other meeting places with extra space. It did meet with success, however.

There is also an entire section devoted to “A Directory of UK Public Library Networking Projects”. This includes basic information and a summary for some two dozen projects, including contact person, address, funding body, budget, and a mission statement.

Mobile Libraries was perhaps the most interesting project in the book. It began in 1996, and is still functioning. Its focus and purpose are to provide electronic services through a bookmobile style arrangement, going from location to location. The project's objectives and planned structure are delineated in the chapter. This project is well worth reading about, if only because it is so unusual. It never would have occurred to me to set up a traveling vehicle with computers for public access and tour the countryside.

Patrick Dewey is Director, Maywood Public Library, Maywood, Illinois, U.S.A.

© 1998 Dominican University