What will become of libraries in the digital world?

A friend and I were having a debate about the future of libraries. We have both recently purchased electronic reading devices and he wondered how much longer until physical libraries were no longer needed. We had different opinions, then somehow wandered into a discussion of where Superman's Fortress of Solitude was located, but generally agreed that the library of today, as we commonly know it, will have to change or die as just another obsolete idea.

As children, we spent many hours in libraries taking books out to read for pleasure and or research to do reports. However, as more and more novels and children's books are available electronically in the coming years, a child may not have to go to a physical library to take out a book, instead streaming it to a reading device much the way one can now stream movies and TV shows with the right subscriptions and devices. How much longer until e-readers are advanced and cheap enough to allow picture books to be streamed/downloaded in as good a format as the physical book? As for research, much of the same information can be found today (and quicker) via the Internet, either through free sites or through pay sites that students, with proper IDs, can access at school, the library or home.

As adults, our trips to the library to take out books, already in decline, has gone to near zero. We can now download, for free, many older works to our electronic readers. We can already download, from our homes, books that are cheaper and easier to carry than physical books. Sooner or later publishers and libraries will figure out a way to make e-books available for e-lending.

I responded that physical libraries will not disappear but will morph into something different. There will be many older works that will never be digitized for various reasons. For now, there are still many people without broadband connections and they will still need a library hotspot to get materials. Third, many digital materials will remain behind paywalls in databases controlled by publishers. Speaking of databases, professional librarians will need to learn how to manage them and help patrons navigate them -- think of the Jedi library in Star Wars II.

The definition of a library is going to change -- libraries are already part virtual. Space arrangements will change. Who in the future will buy massive treatises and research journals that fill bookshelves when they can be stored in an e-book allowing what once filled rows of bookshelves to "fit" onto a piece of plastic smaller that my laptop. Perhaps branches will close. Perhaps they will become much smaller, coffee house sized entities where one comes to socialize and download reading materials, with dedicated, separate physical facilities remaining to house older, print only collections. Perhaps they will become virtual where one downloads reading materials from their own home. Or, more likely, perhaps they will encompass all those options.

Libraries of the foreseeable future will probably remain important for researchers and civilians, both online and offline. Publishers aren't going to want to deal directly with customers on a regular basis. People will still be able to borrow books from the library, either by going in or downloading from home, but, perhaps, will have those works expire within a set period of time (and libraries may be forced to renew those books from publishers from time to time where they now replace books that wear out or are lost). Maybe they will pay a fee ala Netflix that will allow them to take out a book or two for an unlimited time?

For these reasons, and more, I don't believe that brick and mortar libraries are going to go away anytime soon. We are only at the beginning of this revolution and it is hard to predict what will happen. Paper is still king, though its kingdom is shrinking. I do think the physical space will change with less books and more public seating/gathering areas -- maybe they'll partner with Starbucks? Ask me again in 10-20 years, when e-readers and broadband are much more mainstream and my answer will change.

I think the better question is will brick and mortar bookstores still be necessary in a wi-fi world? Why go to to the bookstore down the highway. aside from social reasons, when I can download a book to my e-reader. Like computers, e-readers will undoubtedly continue to decline in price and it is probably not too long before book sellers start giving out e-readers for practically free as long as you maintain an account with them. I already know people who have bought their last physical book and I suspect that it won't be long until I'm one of them, especially when generic e-readers become available for next to nothing. And, as soon as the libraries and publishers figure things out, it probably won't be long until I take out my last physical paper copy of a book (well at least newly published books).

Iowa comes to NJ for the flavor of the week

Now that Donald Trump's approval ratings are sinking like those of his TV show, some Iowa bigwigs (read: money men) are treking to NJ this week to see if they can talk our governor into running against President Obama in 2012. Before the GOP pronounces Gov. Christie as their candidate for 2012 they really need to address a few things.

Governor Christie hasn't seemed to have done much when he's been in state aside from yell and scream at his enemies. He has yet to really tackle the legal corruption that invades almost every part of government life at all levels here. I don't mind paying taxes for services, like police, schools and libraries. I do mind paying taxes so that the high school drop out of a friend of a low level politician can have a $60k a year job doing nothing in some government office. And I was promised lower property taxes, not a 2% annual increase cap. Not that I was really expecting a tax decrease like his millionaire friends so they can create jobs overseas, but a little piece of the action would have been nice.

Also Gov. Christie's reputation is enhanced in part because he has been very lucky that the tone deaf union leaders here have made some very dumb moves. Instead of making logical arguments, like the pensions are deferred compensation that the workers agreed to wait for and offer suggestions on how to work together with the governor regarding insurance costs, their responses have been along the lines of "Wah! You promised!!" I don't think President Obama is as dumb as the union leaders.

Then there is his woman problem. My wife and her friends, some of whom are pretty conservative (for NJ), see him as a big bully picking on women with his attacks on state workers and especially teachers, many of whom are female. Though they voted for him in '09 (or at least didn't vote for Corzine), I don't know if they'd vote for him in '13. I'm not even going to start on his plans to seemingly destroy the state's school system, which is pretty good outside of urban areas, for charter schools run by for profit corporations (it's ok for money to go to corporations, but not teachers or administrators in the field).

I don't dislike Gov. Christie. NJ needed change. The state needs someone who can tell us the truth -- that we've voted through weak, pandering politicians to make this state almost unaffordable. He's made some good points and has tackled some waste (train tunnel to Macy's -- so much extravagance when cheaper options, such as an extension of the 7 subway train, which would provide East Side access, were possible), but most of his changes have been smoke and mirrors and getting the have nots to fight with the have a little bit mores. The state is not going to get back to prosperity by blaming teachers, police officers, and blue collar workers for the state's own bad policies. Neither will the nation.

Can we please fire the Trump "presidential" show?

So now that he has "won" on his birther agreement and gotten President Obama to produce the long version of his birth certificate, probably because the President figured he had gotten all the political distraction he was going to get from the issue), Mr. Trump has moved onto questioning the President's school records. So, what does his school records have to do with his being eligible to be president? Cough cough * * Affirmative action, questioning his intelligence like liberals question Justice Thomas's intelligence * * cough cough.

The GOP has nothing at the moment. Nothing. They have no plans aside from saying no to whatever the Democrats want, even when Democrats agree with them. So they play this race BS over and over instead of tackling the real problems.

Their candidates so far are a bunch of hacks just fattening their own egos (Trump, Palin), rejects (Romney, Huckabee) and people without original ideas (the rest). Not one of them can offer a legitimate plan that will be acceptable to all (hint: probably involves raising taxes AND lowering spending) on how they would lead the country in a new direction aside from repeating the failed polices of the past. Cutting taxes for their rich overlord campaign contributors (the Dems do it too but at least they are sneaky enough to do it without annoying their base by defending civil rights, entitlements etc), screwing the middle class, bombing some brown people for oil and hope it all works out can only work for so long. The Dems have the same problem in Congress so unless they can create a liberal tea party the status quo will probably remain.

At this point I, as a 43 year old middle class man, am looking at which party will hurt me less. There is a part of me that is really pissed that those over 55 will get away without having to sacrifice, even just a little, to pay for the mess they helped to create in Medicare/Social Security over the last 37 years of them voting (in general) to cut taxes and leave the debts to the younger generations. Then there is the other part that looks at my nursing home bound elderly mother's medical bills and wonders what the F would happen when that block grant money proposed by Ryan would run out by spring. These are issues worthy of debate in a conversation we need to have.

However, the media doesn't cover this, or even wonder what political motives were really behind the President's not releasing the long version of his birth certificate until now (probably has something to do with keeping the media chasing a dead story kept them from following up on real issues like why has the President gone back on many campaign promises has run its course). Instead we have to listen to Trump's pronouncements while the really tough issues are ignored for another day.

Who are the super rich?

Though the original post has been deleted, I saw a blog entry summarizing a University of Chicago Law School professor's rant that he can't afford potential tax hikes because he only makes $400,000 or so a year. Only $400k? I think somebody needs to get a better handle on his budget. My wife and I make about a third of that combined. We somehow manage to make ends meet paying for cable (no movies), Netflix, childcare (youngest one needs full time daycare), a legal Mexican to cut our lawn, our mortgage, NJ property taxes (among the highest in the nation), a car payment (other car is paid off) and a class or two for our children (just bought the oldest a clarinet).

We don't have a cleaning woman, but that is more because we haven't found one we like. We also don't pay for private school, aside from the private kindergarten our daughter goes to because our town does not have the full day kindergarten working parents need. Granted, we probably have a smaller home, but it is still 4 bedrooms and 2 baths and our retirement and college education funds are a mess, but we somehow manage to make a decent middle class living earning less than one third of the law school professor. Even adding in the additional costs a larger home and private school would cost to our budget, we would probably still have quite a bit left over if our income doubled, much less tripled. But then we have always tried to live a somewhat modest lifestlye that I am sure looks quite affluent to a family making less than half of what we do.

While the law professor does create jobs for the cleaning and garden people, whatever classes he puts his children in and wherever else all his money goes (I imagine he also invests in stocks), it sounds like he is doing quite nicely. Paying taxes is part of the price of living in a civilized society, which includes protection to prevent people making a minimum wage and just getting by from storming the castles of the rich for a more immediate wealth distribution.

The law school professor is obviously highly skilled and no doubt deserves the high salary he earns. I don't begrudge him trying to keep control of as much of his money as he can. But to say he is not rich is a joke, especially in this horrible market for new lawyers coming out with over $160k in law school loans with no job prospects.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it

With eight weeks to Election Day, many polls report that Republican candidates are better liked than Democrats and the GOP is salivating over what this means for their chances in the mid-term elections. Before they get overly excited over their return to power, just remember this. There is a very powerful voting block of people that are remaining very very quiet: the silent majority.

We hear plenty from partisan observers, both on the left and the right, but how much do we really hear from average citizens, aware of what is going on, forming their own conclusions, but just going about their business? This powerful group knows how close the Republicans and President G.W. Bush came to sinking this beautiful, wonderful country straight into the toilet. At the moment, those potential voters are not motivated as President Obama has not wowed them for many different reasons. But they may be motivated when they realize that their inaction will mean handing the keys back to the Republicans who really got us into this mess.

And despite how much the GOP may want the President to stop blaming Bush, the leftovers from the Bush administration like the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan and the economic mess are the key areas affecting the country today. Criticizing the President for how he is handling those problems is fine, but I haven't heard anything from the GOP aside from the same policies that have stopped working and have left us with a whole pile of bi-partisan debt that is going to have to be paid down no matter how much they want to cut taxes on the rich. I really don't understand how anyone could really believe President Obama could come into office, wave a magic wand and boom, instantly no more war and a robust economy.

PS to all these liberals bashing the President for not doing enough: don't forget the country didn't elect liberal representatives and senators to get the president's back. Maybe you should think about what that means.

Political party poopers

Far fewer 18- to 29-year-olds now identify themselves as Democrats compared with 2008. That would be fine if we weren't stuck with a two party system. Instead we are froced to choose the lesser of two evils because, to be frank, I have no faith that either party wants to do what is best for the average middle class American.

The one thing I learned in college is that the Republicans were not my friends. Even if I agreed with them on some issues, and probably would have been happy in their party in the early 1970s, I discovered they were too two faced to be trusted (not that the Democrats were much better). They preached freedom, yet campaigned on taking away rights as they campaign on a platform of fear and hate. They preached fiscal conservatism, yet borrowed and spent like there was no tomorrow. I've seen them transfer wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, making the reality of our parents' lives the impossible dreams of our children.

And let us not forget their discrimination of anyone educated with their elitism comments, which I find ironic as it was their actions in making it impossible for college graduates to lose their student loan obligations in bankruptcy thus forcing them to remain soulless cubicle drones, assuming they can find a job, to pay back their debts. I'm not a big fan of the Democrats, I think they spend to much on entitlements and not enough on investing in the country's infrastructure, but if my choice is of the two -- it sure won't be the narrow minded, Glen Beck, intolerant, anti-civil rights, freedom hating Republicans. You sleep with dogs, you get fleas.

We need more real leaders

I am disgusted by our so called leaders using the US Constitution as toilet paper. With the exception of a few such as Mayor Bloomberg (R-NY) and President Obama (D) and, to a lesser extent, Governor Christie (R-NJ), many have succumbed to the zealots' dark side. Senator Reid's cowardly statement saying he didn't support the mosque was just the latest sign of the cowardice from those who would prefer to forget some of the basics from the Constitution. There is no exception in the First Amendment for religions we don't like. There is no exception to ban religions from building a house of worship at a certain site because it makes others uncomfortable.

My wife and I used to live in Brooklyn Heights, with a view of the World Trade Center from our apartment window. I can't begin to tell you how many pictures we have with the Trade Center in the background, including pictures we took from the roof of our building. We frequented the mall in the basement frequently with Borders being our main meeting up spot in the days before cell phones. To many of the real Americans opposing the mosque, 9/11 was a TV event. I lived it. Most of America was able to go back to work on Monday with everything back to normal. Not so for those in NYC (and Washington too I imagine).

I watched the buildings burn and fall from my office. And, as we were being evacuated and the phones went dead and I couldn't reach the brother who worked across the street and frequently was in one of the towers, wondered if I was going to have to tell my mother that night she had lost another son (he was running late and was outside when the first plane hit). Later, as I checked email and read of people I knew who lost somebody, I smelled the burning buildings from our home. I saw the smoking ruins when I returned to work on Monday (which was a task in itself). I read with sadness that most of the firefighters from our local firehouse perished that day, though I didn't know them aside from a quick hello if we walked past the firehouse with our dog. It took a long time until I could look at lower Manhattan without feeling grief.

Sometime ago, 4 or 5 years ago, maybe longer, that changed. Maybe it was the PATH station reopening and my starting to think of the site as a construction zone when I came in from NJ where we moved to when our son was born. Maybe it was seeing how much of the area remained the same east of Church Street and thinking this is not the WTC site once I crossed the road. Maybe it was all the other development in lower Manhattan. Maybe it was just time healing all wounds. Whatever. None of this has to do with the mosque and that is my point. My personal thoughts and those of people who do not live or work in the neighborhood should not matter. It is a local issue and the local community board has decided that an abandoned building two blocks away, surrounded by strip clubs and bars in a world different from the financial and professional world that existed just blocks away, was ok for a house of worship (for those who have never been to Manhattan, neighborhoods can change drastically in just a few blocks).

It is the Muslim people looking to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site, not the Taliban or even the Saudi Arabians. Too bad if not restricting the rights of others to make you feel better is unconstitutional. We are not a nation that has religious squads roaming our cities trying to enforce their views on the population. We are a nation of religious freedom and somebody needs to remind Real Americans what their ancestors came to this country for and fought for.

And to those from other parts of the country who feel they have a right to comment on a local zoning issue I ask what would there reaction have been if families of federal workers from around the nation had demanded that no churches be constructed within blocks of the Murrow building site in Oklahoma City because Timothy McVeigh was a Christian? I suspect laughter even though these are the same people who would have probably eagerly placed innocent US Japanese citizens in internment camps after Pearl Harbor because they happened to be the same nationality as those who attacked the US.

It is easy to follow mob rule like Senator Reid has done, it is harder to stand up for what is right, especially if it is going to cost you votes. That doesn't make taking the chicken's way out correct. A real leader, no matter the party, would remind the population about this. Freedom and liberty can be ugly at times. That is the price we pay for being free.