E-mail in libraries

[Paul Neff]

David Burt wrote:

>	Is providing communications a vital part of our mission?
>
>I won't rule this out all together, but I think it does need to be said
>that this has not been a central part of our mission to date.  The only
>real analog is providing meeting rooms, and I don't think you can argue
>that this has been a vital part of our mission.
>
>We are in the business of providing information, not communication.  

If I am remembering my library school readings correctly, Melvil Dewey saw
public libraries not so much as repositories of information so much as focal
points for the interchange of information in the community, particularly
with respect to public meetings and gatherings, continuing education, and
the librarian as a conduit of reference information to the patron.
Information is worthless without the means to communicate it, and to a great
extent this principle endures both formally and informally within public
libraries to this day: we provide and promote relatively formal avenues for
public communication (meeting rooms, bulletin boards, reference interviews)
as well as less formal channels (the ability to talk quietly at a table
without being shushed).  The idea that libraries don't provide communication
is both incorrect and untenable.

Public libraries I've been in have treated the question of public e-mail in
a variety of ways.  Many libraries consider it an unmanageable,
inappropriate service, often invoking the analogy to telephone services
mentioned by Joe Schallan in his post of 5/27.  Some libraries consider
e-mail so important that they provide Internet user accounts to their
patrons, support its unrestricted use from public workstations, or both.
(Some libraries also let their patrons use the phone for free.)  

However, most public libraries have typewriters and word processors
available for public use.  I've not yet heard of a public library that made
any restrictions as to the content of any documents created thusly.
Typewriters and word processors cost money; at Kinko's users are charged an
hourly rate for their use, just like a pay phone (depending, I suppose, on
where you live).  
If e-mail is like a pay phone, isn't it also like a typewriter maintained by
the library at a public desk?  It seems to me that even private,
interpersonal communication has been the public library's bailiwick for some
time.

Where I work now, we let patrons send all the outgoing e-mail they want from
a generic library account which they sign in to use.  We also let them
access their HotMail, Juno, ISP or university accounts via telnet or Web,
also subject to authentication.  Some people use this access to catch up on
their listservs or personal correspondence.  Some people use it to apply for
jobs.  I have seen patrons cut text from Web pages and paste it into e-mail
forms - sharing research.  The usage I've seen tends to reinforce two basic
principles:

        1. E-mail can be used to add value to Internet access, by allowing 
           patrons more flexibility in their use of Internet resources.

        2. E-mail adds to the patron's experience of the Library by giving them 
           greater flexibility in communication, period.

I'm willing to assert that if we removed the procedures and technologies
from public libraries that allow our patrons to communicate effectively with
each other and with the outside world, we'd have a lot fewer users.  Public
library patrons communicate with themselves, Library staff and the community
because information doesn't become knowledge without communication.  In my
experience, the provision of public E-mail access fits that model quite
well.  Sure, people abuse the service.  Sure, it has to be managed.  But
then, patrons talk too loudly sometimes, too.  E-mail access encourages and
facilitates the use of a information resources (Internet), provides patrons
with a useful communications tool analogous to some others we already have,
and contributes to patron use and enjoyment of the Library. On balance, it
fits our mission just fine.

>If we decide we want to *add communications* to our mission, fine.  But
>please, let's not make this another case of "mission creep", as they say
>in the military.  Let's not now assume that since we started providing
>telnet access to MOOs and E-mail accounts that communications have now
>become a vital part of our mission by default, without ever consciously
>deciding this.

I don't agree that this is a case of "mission creep".  Communications have
always been part of our mission (to the extent that a single mission exists
for public libraries everywhere, and no, I don't believe one does) and
interpersonal communications, including e-mail access, are part of the deal.
E-mail access is obviously not for every library, but IMO that issue is more
properly a question of management, resources and the library's chosen role.

As Joe said, flame away...
 

  Paul Neff
  _______________________________________________________________
  Technology Services Manager, Arlington Heights Memorial Library
  847/506-2652 :: 500 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Hts IL 60004-5910
  pneff at nslsilus.org   ::   Not an official communication of AHML