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 A Bookless Library in San Antonio!

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alj
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alj


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PostSubject: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySat Feb 09, 2013 4:26 pm

I ran across this while browsing Hill Country photos:

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Quote :
It sounds like an oxymoron, but come the fall of 2013, San Antonio's Bexar County is going to be home to the BiblioTech, the country's first book-less public library. Of course, there will be books -- just e-books, not physical books.

The 4,989 square-foot space will look like a modern library, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who was inspired to pursue the project after reading Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs biography, told ABC News. (A glance at the photo shows that its inspired by Apple in more ways than one.) Instead of aisles and aisles of books there will be aisles and aisles of computers and gadgets. At the start, it will have 100 e-readers available for circulation and to take out, and then 50 e-readers for children, 50 computer stations, 25 laptops and 25 tablets on site.

Article is longer - very interesting read.
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Betty Fasig
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySat Feb 09, 2013 5:24 pm

Dear Annie,

It sounds so progressive. It sounds so limiting for the many people who are not yet connected to the flow of digital. I, personally know people who have no computer, nothing at all that could connect them to that kind of digital library.

I am just wondering here. Maybe I am behind the times. I wonder about the exclusion of old people in the library and the lack of interest of the young people who already have every gadget they can get and are not interested in books or stories or history. I am making a judgement here when I purport the shallow-ness of minds,,,,,older or younger,,,cannot give a rats ass about anything other than their looks.

Love,

Betty
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alj
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alj


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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySat Feb 09, 2013 5:53 pm

I'm curious to see how it turns out, Betty. The little branch library in NW Houston had a small section that looked a lot like the picture. It was a godsend while I was writing A Myth. The advantage is that no conventional library can hold all the books needed to serve the community, and Inter-library loans took forever.

The school library where I was teaching when I retired had a couple of stations, and toward the end of the last year, I was trying out a new lap-top thingy - a cart that held a dozen lap-tops, all plugged in and charged, so that it could be hauled out, the computers unplugged for a few hours, and supposedly, the kids could use them at their desks for whatever. We only had them available the last few weeks of my last year, and they hadn't worked out the glitches by the time I left, so I don't know how they worked out. My classroom, generally, had six computer stations for classes of twelve to fifteen kids. In the middle of the room i set up work stations, where several of them could do writing workshops while the rest worked at the computers, using software designed to help them with mechanics, grammar, etc. they also had supplemental readings, and their course completion plans on the computers, but they still did the bulk of their reading from standard textbooks, and had to do all but the final drafting stages for their essays by hand, in the workshops.

This one apparently will have e-readers available to check out, as well as books to download, and one good thing, book returns will not be a problem; all the library would have to do would be to terminate them when they were overdue.

It's the idea of there being no print books at all that I wonder about.

But even ten years ago, when I was teaching computerized English classes, the kids generally knew more than I did, and would teach me.

I think it is the furutre, but is the future here now already?
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dkchristi
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySun Feb 10, 2013 10:33 am

I think libraries are doomed. I think book stores are doomed. I mentioned in another post the vision on Star Trek where it was all holographic images and books were treasured artifacts. When knowledge can come from a headset that clips on glasses - or appears within the glasses - well, libraries are done. I haven't used one in years except to access the Internet. I also frequent book stores less as they became less friendly for signings.

I pick up print overruns by famed authors at Big Lots and the $1 store - for $1. I read them and use them to decorate. I like hard cover books. I can't afford the book store versions and I want my own books, not the ones from the library.
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LC
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySun Feb 10, 2013 4:52 pm

Quote :
I think libraries are doomed. ... I haven't used one in years except
to access the Internet.

I can't remember when I was last in a library, either. Years at least. I even access things I need at the campus library online. I think one reason is that libraries are so less user-friendly than Barnes and Noble. Why are they still using the Dewey decimal system instead of grouping the books in areas of interest? And most of the offerings were limited and old. There's a "new books" cart and you'll wait six months for your turn at something on it.

I guess if you want to check out CDs and videos the library is alright; I know people who do that.
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySun Feb 10, 2013 5:52 pm

Maybe they're not doomed - just on their way out. Or, they are still libraries, it's just the "books" that are different.

Like LC said; people check out videos and CD's from libraries. Wasn't the original biblion more like a scroll?

It would have been a problem, checking out one of Gutenberg's books, I would think. It would not have been easy to curl up with one, either. As far as curling up goes, isn't an e-reader about the same size as a book?

I hope that there will still be public "libraries," electronic or whatever, because I don't see us living in a world where everyone can afford a computer for a good long time yet. If people who cannot afford computers and book readers do not have places where they can read for free, then th differences in opportunity will just get wider.

Just one of those changes we are having to adjust to in this new age, seems to me.
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LC
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 10:10 am

Quote :
If people who cannot afford computers and book readers do not have places where they can read for free, then th differences in opportunity will just get wider.

I'd agree except that lots of people read books on their phones now, and everyone has one of those. Or an Obamaphone, lol.
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 11:22 am

You could be right. Very Happy
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dkchristi
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 12:47 pm

There's no such thing as an Obamaphone. Long before President Obama even thought of running for president it was realized by case workers that those receiving subsidies and needing employment could not be reached by their case managers or employers without a phone. Thus, the cheapest possible phones and minimum service was provided for that purpose including for AFCD recipients who had children with emergencies. Public phones are rare, so those without incomes are without a method to communicate and improve their life. Without income and credit, there's no such thing as a contract phone and the minute cards become expensive.

Seeing a person of no income with a cell phone seems to insult people who have the means to buy contract phones. I really don't know why. The cheap phones are the least expensive way to help them attain employment and communicate with training opportunities, etc. to get off the public dole.

Sort of reminds me of years ago when the Rotary Inner Wheel (Rotary Wives) sponsored a young single parent with three children through LPN as their "project." They took her off welfare and paid all her expenses for 15 months. She submitted her bills, their committee approved them, etc. One day a bejeweled member came into my office irate. "She has the audacity to turn in a bill for cable television!" Now, that was minimum cable that has only local stations and PBS. The young woman lived out in the sticks (cheap trailer) where there was zero reception on any kind of antenna. She had three children and had to study her LPN which was very difficult. The PBS kid shows were her babysitter during study times.

Sometimes we look through the eyes of plenty at those with nothing and judge harshly when they have something that we take for granted. Even if it does come from our taxes along that glitzy path of free stuff, better to a needy family on the way up who will one day contribute to the tax base than to wealthy profit guzzlers stashing their money oversees rather than pay taxes and advantaging themselves of every loophole that the ordinary person never sees.

I once begrudged the pretty SUV's my clients drove. Then I discovered how they lived and learned the only decent thing they had was that car because the dealer sold it to them with no credit and monthly payments. When they worked in the fields, they slept in it rather than the bug infested group housing furnished by the growers or rented to them at astronomical prices. Yes, it's hard to see through another's eyes without walking in their moccasins.

Now, the phone has another role: educator. With so much info available on the phone, it also serves to education people who have little other access to technology.
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LC
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 2:15 pm

YK what, DK, I really don't care about most "poor people's" stories anymore. I didn't tell the single mother to get knocked up three times when she could barely afford to feed herself. SNAP, TANF and other programs are at their highest point EVER now, don't tell me that most of this isn't self-inflicted anymore. Coddling, enabling, and being afraid to judge just leads to more bad behavior and poor choices. Why is a poor person's "only decent thing" a pretty SUV, to use your own example?



Look at them crowding around the welfare worker like animals when their feeding time is an hour overdue. There are many reasons for this, most self-inflicted. And these "needy families" will NEVER contribute to the tax base.
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LC
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 2:36 pm

Here's a guy who tells it like it is. Not what a lot are going to want to hear, but Dr. Carson isn't much of an excuse-maker.

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dkchristi
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 5:10 pm

The young woman supported by Rotary Inner wheel was a widow whose husband died of cancer. The cost of his illness destroyed their finances and cost them their home and all they had built financially as a family. He had his own small business and no insurance. She had no job skills and could not earn enough to support herself and three children and provide them with medical care. Therefore, she was a recipient of the taxpayer dole.

When she finished her 15 month program, she was gainfully employed in private duty at $21 an hour in work that provided her the chance to also mother her children. I have many such success stories, far more than failures.

However, this is Ann's library thread; my point was the phones in the hands of the poor might also avail them of the joy of reading and more. How great!
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LC
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 5:30 pm

I'm not surprised that the woman you referenced is a widow with a husband dead of cancer, etc.; such examples are almost always given in magazine/newspaper stories of this nature. Yet the overwhelming lot of welfare recipients are just garden variety baby mamas (most welfare recipients are single mothers). Yep, I'm sure their Obamaphone is useful to them. But not for reading.

And even this:
Quote :
She had no job skills and could not earn enough to support herself and
three children and provide them with medical care. Therefore, she was a
recipient of the taxpayer dole.

Whose fault is it she had three kids and no job skills? Who, in this day and age, thinks that isn't important? That you can expect to live blissfully w/ your husband until you die? Again: self-imposed. And until this shit stops getting rewarded, it will continue until the whole country collapses.
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alj
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 6:28 pm

Quote :
However, this is Ann's library thread; my point was the phones in the hands of the poor might also avail them of the joy of reading and more. How great!

Hey, as long as it's not my Joy thread, knock yourselves out. A Bookless Library in San Antonio! 56809 A Bookless Library in San Antonio! 973110
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dkchristi
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 9:59 pm

Then I'll just ad that many religions still believe that a woman's place is in the home and not getting an education or job skills. She was not an "example" she was the young woman selected by application to the Rotary Inner Wheel that took her off welfare.

I have first-hand experience administering welfare programs that were successful in providing a route for entry into the workforce and upward mobility. The majority of the 15000 recipients in Miami/Dade wanted work - even before the economy went bust. Children and disabled are a large portion of welfare recipients. They didn't get "knocked up." They are innocent and deserve help.

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Abe F. March
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptyMon Feb 11, 2013 11:02 pm

It is often easy and convenient to make judgments based on limited information. We see that in news stories and many high profile people are condemned before they have their day in court. Who is responsible for the plight of the poor? No easy answer as it involves our economy and environment. As for a woman having children she can’t afford to raise, I don’t think she did that alone and the other party to the act being dead places the blame on her for not having foresight, using protection or a gun.
Often giving a handout is giving a hand up. Because someone used bad judgement doesn’t mean they should be forever condemned. How many of us have made bad judgements we regret?

I remember some years ago seeing fat people on welfare and came to the conclusion/judgment that they were not that needy. Eating or going to a movie is often a diversion from a bad situation.

This morning I heard on CNN about the Navy Seal who killed Bin Laden. He was offered a new identity in the Protection Program, but declined as he didn’t want to be removed from his family. He is unemployed, no healthcare and no pension. Very sad indeed. Now that the news has provided the location and information about the Navy Seal, they have exposed him to retaliation. The media appears to do anything that will make a story without consideration of the person involved. That is considered part of our “Free” society. With all the plus factors in Freedom of Speech, there is also a downside that is seldom acknowledged.

As DK said, without “walking in the moccasins” of someone else, our judgement is clouded.
Certainly there are those who use and abuse the welfare system. On the flip side, I think there are many who use the system for a hand up who become productive members of our society.

Using the system in place to plug the holes for abusers is better than eliminating the system entirely. I was forced to use the system once in my life. It was a demoralizing experience, that experience changed my attitude about it. Without a job and having three children, Food Stamps were life sustaining. The other factors, i.e., a place to live and a bed to sleep are additional factors.

Reference this thread about libraries, going to the Library was something we did often. We read books and occupied ourselves playing games in the evening. TV was not an option.
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LC
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PostSubject: Re: A Bookless Library in San Antonio!   A Bookless Library in San Antonio! EmptySun Feb 17, 2013 10:24 am

"Millions Improperly Claimed US Phone Subsidies"

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