Public libraries an expensive relic

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Friday, February 4, 2005 12:24 AM PST ∞

It's on odd sort of rational dissonance that folks who are most appalled at any hint of government coercion of free speech nevertheless are among the biggest supporters of public libraries.

Because what could be more coercive than the government deciding which books are to be available for the rest of us to read?

There is something decidedly undemocratic about the government being in the business of choosing and buying books. Yes, yes, I know our librarians pride themselves on being color blind, politically neutral and inclusive of all classes in making purchasing decisions to serve the entire community. But the fact remains that librarians are very much public employees, part and parcel of the government.

Rather than pitting bureaucrats against citizens when stocking our library shelves, far better for the government to get out of the book-buying business altogether and invest its (our) money in true information infrastructure ---- shared public resources for the common good.

Better than a building, how much better to invest our money in a communitywide wireless network so that all citizens may have unfettered access to the virtually unlimited library that is the Internet?

Beyond the philosophical points is an argument that ought to carry even more weight in North County: By moving our information infrastructure from structures to access, we can dramatically lower the costs of keeping our citizens informed.

Escondido is grappling with thoughts of building a new library ---- at a cost undoubtedly running into the millions. Oceanside has long struggled with finding the funds to provide library services to its western neighborhoods.

Building a wireless network ---- "WiFi" to the hip kids ---- would cost far less than constructing a building and maintaining it.

Better, it provides its citizens access to larger and more current resources.

While it's true that not everyone owns a computer today, prices have dropped to the point than one can now purchase an Internet-ready home computer for less than the cost of a color television. Even computers too old and slow to run the latest games or business software are more than adequate for surfing the Web, checking e-mail or newsgroups, or instant messaging.

What removes these resources from the reach of low-income families isn't so much the lack of a computer as it is the lack of access to the Internet.

But if our local governments were to set up and maintain wireless grids (and perhaps subsidize computer purchases for low-income families), we could extend the wealth of knowledge and information available online to all citizens ---- providing far more benefit than any stack of books.

The Internet is a living, changing, growing and interconnected body of knowledge that is far more representative of what we as a people know, think and believe.

That is the information infrastructure we need to invest in.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5424 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.