Sauers on “media equity” and “library reciprocity”
I so enjoyed how he spoke about these issues on Uncontrolled Vocabulary the other night that I asked Michael Sauers to blog about them…and he did!
Excerpt:
Why do so many libraries insist on treating their public-access computers differently from every other type of media in the building. Think about it, anyone can come in off the street, whether they live in your town or not, pay taxes to your library or not, pull any book of the shelf sit down and read it. For audio if they’ve got a portable player with them they can do the same with CDs and/or tapes. But when it comes to the computers so many libraries require some sort of ID. Maybe a library card, maybe a driver’s license.
Why do we have to show ID to get a library card? Well, it’s not to track the patron, it’s to track the materials that they patron will be removing from the library. If they don’t return the item, we want to be able to track it down. Using materials in the library however required no ID, nor should it, ever! But when it comes to those darn computers, we require ID left and right.
Thanks to Greg Schwartz and the UV regulars for letting me join in- it was fun! Also: apologies to Mary Chimato for not having tuned in sooner.
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March 28th, 2008 at 6:39 am
It was great to have you on the call. You’re a natural. I just have to find the right topics to compel you to come back regularly. Oh, and did you mean “UV regulars?”
Cheers,
Greg
April 1st, 2008 at 9:58 pm
[...] Michael Sauers chimed on Media equity at the request of David Rothman in an episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary. And, yes Greg, I will buy a t-shirt. I think I am going to put in a longer post on this issue, but I’ll start my questioning now. [...]