Stone age technology: Television’s place in libraries.

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I found myself in a Backyard Burger restaurant two nights eating dinner and all the while being completely fixated on the news coverage of the tragedy in Oklahoma. In the midst of all the footage I realized that many of our library patrons at home don’t have cable (or even televisions) and thus are not able to catch this type of news unless they go to a public place and it’s usually a place that requires a purchase for the right to take up space.

I realized that this was a niche our library could fill and through a little bit of crowdsourcing I found that many libraries are already doing this (which I expected). From having a single television showing varied programming to a wall of televisions delivering nothing but financial and business news, libraries across the country are using the television to deliver services to those that can’t get the information in other ways. One library even shows NFL games on Sundays.

In the days of internet news feeds and stories that age out after only hours, television news sounds almost archaic but it is still a very viable source of information and up-to-date news that libraries should not ignore. 

 

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY TELEVISION AND NEWS VIEWING AREA

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SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, AND BUSINESS SECTION OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 

(PHOTO BY CHRIS BULIN)

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Hulking out in the library!

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The Incredible Hulk may be the last person you’d want inside your public library, but one Chicago area library is actually trying to draw the Hulk into their library…a 9′ statue of him at least. 

Tom Mukite at the Northlake Public Library in Northlake, IL is hoping to raise $30,000 through crowdfunding in order to bring an iMac, a drawing tablet, a Wacom Cintiq display (the same LCD display utilized by professional comic and web-comic artists), an expanded graphic novel collection, a 3D printer, and a 9′ tall statue of the Incredible Hulk to put outside their library to beckon aspiring comic artists and readers through the doors.

Tom and the Northlake staff are not without resistance though. There are fears that other library professionals are not taking the fundraiser seriously and also are not understanding how this is a library focused project. 

Perhaps I’m biased, having grown up with Marvel and DC as a child and being nurtured on heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, The X-Men and even the anti-heroes like The Punisher and The Incredible Hulk, but I think this is a marvelous (see what I did there?) idea! Not only does this have the potential to be a draw for the surrounding library community, but this has brought invaluable media attention to the library and its attempts to satisfy patron needs and interests regardless of how outrageous they may seem. 

Though the project’s indiegogo page is far from reaching its intended goal of $30,000, media attention to the project is growing at a steady rate and donations have been received from not only the U.S., but Canada and the U.K. as well.

I hope everyone will take a moment and donate just a little bit to this library’s unique and heroic cause. This is a chance to appeal to kids both young and old and get them excited about reading. As Pulitzer Prize-winning author Art Spiegelman says : “comics are a gateway drug to literacy.” 

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bring-the-hulk-to-the-northlake-public-library