I had a look at the 8 minute video/infomercial The Gates Foundation has released to help library advocates make the case for funding in their communities.
The video is an accessory to the announcement by the Gates Foundation at the ALA mid-winter meeting this past January in Seattle that pledged 5 more years of support so “public libraries serving low-income communities continue to provide free, high-quality computer and Internet services and training to their communities”.
As advertised the video has a strong focus on minority and low income library users who are in some ways becoming dependent on library technologies to do many of the online tasks that are becoming commonplace in society. Imagine not having a computer in your house.
The problem is that the smooth production is as much about computers and Microsoft as it is about the importance of the public library. There are more than twice as many shots of people interacting with computers at the library then with books. There are even a few gaming shots and a plug for x-box.
It is a noble deed to provide access to technology to underprivileged segments of the population but it is as important, if not more important, to provide them access to books and reading.
We can’t expect the Gates Foundation to help us with this.
We need a campaign that is as polished and well funded to get the message out about the books.
Why isn’t the publishing industry producing similar videos?
As I said in my post after the announcement of the grant:
“Our hats go off to the Gates Foundation for their support let’s just hope that support is not limiting the technology options for our libraries and ultimately our citizens”
There was a comment made recently by Karen Cunningham who is head of libraries in Glasgow, Scotland, the largest municipal library service in Europe. She “accused the public libraries sector of “taking its eye off the ball” and getting distracted from reading by IT…It wasn’t that we diverted financial resources but we did divert our thinking time, our planning time and our staff time away from books and reading”
Librarians Beware.
Got the video lead via the Mississippi Library Association website.
Karen Cunninham lead via The Good Library blog