[WEB4LIB] Web-accessible info and library budget reductions?

[Karen G. Schneider]

# I was wondering if anyone knows of other examples where the rationale
for
# a
# library budget reduction proposal has been based, at least in part, on
# this
# rationale (i.e., people get a lot of their info via the Web).

Anecdotally/informally, I've heard this from public library trustees for
years.  They need to be RE-educated constantly because their heads are
filled with misleading information.

This also crops up as the rationale for building smaller libraries.  In
the popular imagination, libraries = books.  Speaking of online
advertising, I designed a banner ad recently for a local newspaper Web
site and the fellow I worked with was surprised we wanted to list it on
the news page rather than the books page (even though what we were
advertising is entirely Web-based...).  He asked me who we were trying
to reach, and I kept saying "everyone," which amazed him--a library
reaching out to someone other than a bookworm?

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Karen G. Schneider kgs at lii.org  http://lii.org 
Coordinator, Librarians' Index to the Internet
lii.org  New This Week:     http://lii.org/ntw 
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