[Web4lib] Google is replacing the professional librarian

[K.G. Schneider]

Well, the comment is certainly indicative of a larger malaise, in that even
the director doesn't believe in libraries. If she did, she wouldn't advance
her PR funding in a way that's sure to fail.

-----------

I don't know Linda Mielke or this library system, but that's a rather hasty
conclusion for a director who intentionally stepped into a library system
with quite a bit of baggage. 

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2003/april2003/india
napolis.htm

I have seen very good administrators laid low by pols with agendas. 

To bring it back to the "web 4 lib," I read Mielke's comment *in context* as
a statement about ensuring that with usage rising, the city should spend
more on materials for its library users, not less; that service to the
city's users were more important than the "edifice complex" that seemed to
be the focus of spending efforts from an earlier regime; and that the
library was still relevant in the Google era in a way that she was bringing
attention to and should not be ignored, even though skeptical city pols were
questioning the value of libraries at all.

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com