During the recession, various programs and services around the country faced funding cuts and economic strife. However, the extent to which public libraries, on a national scale, were affected is unacceptable.

The above slide identifies the nation-wide issue of public library funds being cut by extreme amounts. This slide specifically states that next year, Texas plans to cut its funding by 88%, California plans to make cuts by 50%, and overall 23 states plan to cut funding for public libraries. These outrageous statistics can no longer be overlooked by the general public.

The link to the google map mentioned in the above slide can be found here. Despite serving the greater good of our country through its 22 facilities, the Fairfax County Public Library has received constant budget cuts in the past few years. The map identifies each public library location as well as provides a photograph of each institution.

The above slide displays the “image overlay” concept. An older map from The Fairfax County Public Library’s website features red stars indicating each library belonging to the system atop the google earth satellite image.

Aside from being an economic scapegoat from which funds are constantly being cut amidst economic hardship, many other causes for the death of the public library can be identified. Two key causes include the recent increase in ebook sales nationwide and the lack of necessity plaguing the public library due to resources, opportunities, and convenient short cuts provided by our increasingly digital and internet-dependent culture.

Recently, ebook sales have increased greatly. Given this, the desire for and need of printed books, as found in public libraries, has consequently decreased. With easily accessible and more affordable electronic alternatives, books, as well as libraries, face a devastating fate in the future of our technological society.

Ultimately, The Digital Public Library of America aims to digitize all of a physical public library’s resources to be made available to the public instantly online. With projects such as this one, created by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the future of a completely digitized public library is not only a plausible idea, but a potentially imminent establishment.

Even if we are not personally concerned with utilizing public libraries in our area, many individuals rely on the resources made available by these facilities. As with any government or communal change, grassroots efforts are crucial to the achievement of any sort of policy change. It is up to us as citizens to take it upon ourselves to present our problems with the current dying public library system to our leaders and officials.

Plan for security and restoration:

Currently, the project is saved on my computer. However, soon, the project will need to be saved in alternate ways. Going by the principle of safety and security, “LOCKSS,” or “Lots of copies keep stuff safe,” I will save my project to a flash drive. Additionally, I will print the project out on paper and keep a hard copy in a secure location. Finally, I will email my project to my family computer at my home in Massachusetts. This way, there will be one more electronic version of my project saved on another system.

If this project were to evolve into a larger experience and gain partnership with a large organization or initiative aimed at improving the plight of the public library, I would further increase security and ensure restoration by saving all information on a large server, with the assistance of my newfound partner.

Finally,

This final project has been more than just an assignment for me. Rather, it has turned into an opportunity to learn, research, and understand fully an issue that is largely overlooked by our mainstream society. Thinking back to my childhood, I fondly remember my hometown’s public library. Unfortunately, after doing some research, I found that my beloved hometown library, much like the others I’ve researched, is struggling with budget cuts. Prior to investigating my own library, the statistics were just numbers and the libraries in articles were just names. Now I have a personal attachment to this issue. Reading some of my first chapter books took place in my hometown’s public library. I fondly remember renting PBS movies, spending the day in the children’s section with my neighbors, and treasuring having my own library card. The subject of the dying public library must be addressed as soon as possible. I hope that anyone who reads this blog or comes across my final project topic feels the same way.

The above video offers an introduction to Scratch. Scratch, a new programming language designed by MIT aims to “let you create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music and art.”

After reading and understanding its in’s and outs, I have mixed feelings about Scratch. Part of me wants to say, “So what?” It’s a programming language that allows you to create a little figure and make it move around your screen. You can create, detail, demand, and direct your little guy and add sound effects.

Initially, I was widely skeptical. I kept thinking to myself, why would I ever want to spend my time making a little cat and having it run around and say things? And honestly, had I just watched the video and read through the program’s details, that would be the total of this blog post: “Scratch is dumb, I would never want to do this.” But then, not knowing what else to write on the subject, what did I decided to do? GOOGLE it. Of course.

Doing a quick google search, I realized that the simple, seemingly pointless nature of the program is not at all a bad thing. Reading what people say about Scratch and seeing its description on Wikipedia, I understand that so much of Scratch is directed to children. Children are the target audience and the point of this programming language is to make it simple, easy to use, and inspire young creative individuals to pursue their interests in programming and designing.

As a child, I probably would have LOVED Scratch. Thinking back to the activities and games I participated in as a child, I’m able to see many parallels between my own childhood computer games and Scratch. Lots of the games I played were pointless and simple. But more importantly than how stimulating and exciting they would be to a college student, they served as stepping stones to the next level of creative activity.

Overall, I’m not the biggest fan of using and figuring out Scratch myself. And don’t even get me started on that frustrating block maze. However, the objectives of the program, I am very impressed with. If it takes giving some commands to a talking, dancing little cat to spark some creativity and passion in a few young people, I’m all for it.

Way to go MIT!