Feasibility report on the need of a library in the community
Executive summary
Libraries are made for systematic organization, collection, dissemination and preservation of information and knowledge. It is therefore important for man to maintain and preserve the valuable information and knowledge which is contained in books for us and even the coming generations. This report shows the importance of the community library in our areas and how this can benefit the people who love reading and also as a means of cultivating the reading culture of our people.
The report also shows the trends of library usage since some few years ago and gives a future insight of how the library establishment is going to be. Development of science and technology in the last two centuries is a factor that cannot be ignored in the library establishments. This report will show how technology has affected the libraries and how the community library will adapt to the ever advancing technology. Conclusions and recommendations will also be made on how the community library should conduct itself so as to remain relevant to the community at all times even with all the challenges it is faces.
Introduction
A community library is a library which is accessible to the community members and is normally funded from the public sources and also operated by the civil servants. These libraries are supported by taxes and governed by a board so as to serve the interest of the community. Community libraries are open to everyone and every member of the community is able to access the collection. They are fully voluntary such that no one is forced to its service and they provide these services at no charge. Community libraries are available in most countries all over the world are usually considered to be an essential factor to having a population that is educated and literate.
Importance of community library
Generally, a library can be said to be a house or a store of knowledge. The dictionaries have defined the word library as “a room or a building that contains a collection of books”. Community libraries render great services to the society. Community libraries do play crucial roles in the promotion of progress in knowledge and education. There are very many individuals who love to read but they are not able to buy books due to the high prices of books. Being a member of a library enables these people to borrow books for free.
Members of a library are able to borrow two books at a time and keep them for not more than two weeks depending with the rules of the library. Community libraries are in particular helpful to the children who come from poor households and even those that come from better families cannot afford to buy every book they need for their studies. An example is the invaluable books like large dictionaries and Encyclopedias cannot be bought. A community library is place which is open to the poor and the rich alike.
Community libraries also offer other services which include developing love for books among member of the community, providing rooms for community meetings and after-school programs for school going children. On-line and in person programs for language learning, reader development, free lectures, cultural performances, homework help and other services to the community are common offerings from community libraries. Another popular program offered by the community libraries is the summer reading program for school going children, families and even adults. In the rural areas, local community libraries have in addition to the main library a mobile library which consists of a bus which is furnished like small library to serve the country side in a regular schedule. With all these facts, there is no doubt that a community library is an important place in our societies.
Benefits of community libraries
The major benefit of community libraries is that anybody, regardless of their income or their background are able to read a book without necessarily having to buy it and by just having a card and a promise to return it, they are able to carry the books home for free. These libraries offer a common collection of reference study which very few people can afford on their own and this improves the availability of education. Community libraries offer quiet environments for studying which is available for any person who requires it. The libraries in the long run promote literacy to the people who utilize them.
Community libraries are places which promote scholarships and peaceful places that are sometime very tough to find especially in the urban areas. Libraries are undeniably a sanctuary for books that are valued such as the classics and are also great resource centers which contain magazines, music and other reference works. For the people who cannot afford computers, community libraries offer them an opportunity to access them and maintain emails and other similar things.
Disadvantages and threats to libraries now days
The major disadvantage of a library is that even though libraries allow one to borrow books freely, one does not own the books and therefore it is not possible to retain them for future reference. Another disadvantage is that you might not find the titles you need because the copies may have been checked out. In the current days of instant information, community libraries struggle to stay current. Even though some information is timeless, these days it does not take a long time for the printed materials to become outdated. Also when libraries are not properly funded, they may not be able to buy the latest editions and titles, meaning that its information can be outdated.
The boards of universities have started to become skeptical to the library buildings and the new additions since they exhibit high costs. Many academic are mourning the loss of the common culture on the use of libraries across communities and campuses while others are hailing the era of new type library which has new structures of practical use and knowledge. A move has been made to make the library look more than a storage room for information and books as different programs are provided and even coffee bars have been added which is a big transition from the earlier assumption of libraries. From the mid 1990s, declining trends in the usage of libraries has been properly documented.
Conclusion
The quest for knowledge by man has led to the accumulation and creation of large amounts of information. The quest for knowledge does not know limits and bounds and as such it is never satisfied. The hard-earned information and knowledge is valuable for every community in the world and therefore it should be preserved in a place where it can be accessible to every community member. The demand for information is ever increasing and therefore there is a very important need for the libraries to modernize so as to keep pace with the current times.
Challenges that are being faced by libraries can be solved by adapting to the processes of networking and digitization. Currently, librarians face a lot of problems because they have limited space and time. For good community libraries, satisfaction of the user is their main objective and this cannot be attained without having to adopt the modern tools and techniques that are availed by the modern technologies. These technologies have resulted to the creation of Virtual and Digital Libraries that have many advantages compared to the traditional libraries.
Recommendations
Before starting a community library, certain factors that will attract readers to it must be considered so as it does not end up being storage of information which is not utilized. The library should first and foremost be able to embrace technology so that it becomes relevant in the community of the current times. The community library should be able to connect to other libraries and to the worldwide network so as to broaden the access to reading materials. It should provide access to such platforms where the library can effectively share its resources with the rest of the world and also to share the resources with its own users. Due to the wide range of technological methods which are continually increasing, the method to be used should be picked correctly so that it has a shared goal and vision among the participants and also a method which can last for a longer time.
Technology can be able to bridge the geographical gap but it cannot be able to cross the cultural boundaries. In an ever changing world, communities usually try to tightly cling on to the differences which define them. The community library should share across the different cultures whether professional or regional. During cooperation across organizations, the community library should exhibit total transparency among the partners. It should not try to hide its difficulties as this will only reduce the potential for its success and at the same time alienating those people who are in a better position to help. The community library should have a priority for cost savings which is key factor in the progress of any organization. The library should always provide shared resources for its users so as to lower costs for all its participants. Efforts should be aimed at the improvement of how the libraries share its materials.
Work Cited
Bobinski, George S. History and impact of American public libraries. Chicago: American Library Association, 2007.
Rubin, Richard E. Foundations of Library and Information Science. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2010.
