America's Libraries adapted to digital age - 0 views
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As a group, libraries have embraced the digital age," said Lee Rainie, founding director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which has surveyed public attitudes toward libraries. "They've added collections, added software and hardware, upgraded the skills of their staff. A lot of institutions have had to change in the Internet age, but libraries still have a very robust and large constituency." A December 2007 Pew survey found that more than half of Americans — 53% — visited a library in the past year. That's expected to grow as more people look for free resources and entertainment in a slowing economy.
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At the one-room Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library in the District of Columbia, books still line the shelves. But on one recent day, almost every adult at the library sat in front of a computer, surfing the Web, checking e-mail or visiting a social networking site.
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The analysis found that libraries are thriving in the Internet age: •Attendance increased roughly 10% between 2002 and 2006 to about 1.3 billion. Regionally, Southern states lag the rest of the country in visits per capita. •Circulation, which measures how often library visitors check out print or electronic materials, increased about 9%, from 1.66 billion to 1.81 billion during the five-year period.
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•The number of Internet-capable computers soared 39% — from about 137,000 in 2002 to nearly 190,000 in 2006. Libraries in rural states in New England and the Midwest led the country in public computers per capita in 2006. The increase in Internet access is thanks in part to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which launched a national program in 1997 to bring the Internet to libraries, beginning with the South. By 2003, the foundation had spent $250 million on some 47,000 computers, as well as training and tech support, bringing almost every public library online, said Jill Nishi, deputy director of the foundation's U.S. Libraries initiative. "You should be able to walk into any library and find Internet service," she said. "It's free, unfettered access to information."
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Free Internet access is particularly important for low-income people, said Ken Flamm, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied the role of the Internet in public libraries. Only about a third of households with incomes below $25,000 have Internet access, according to federal data.