Patrons or Customers?
August 7th, 2007Brent Wagner - “Why are an increasing number of libraries and librarians in the library field jumping on this Barnes & Noble–like bandwagon? We haven’t the fiscal support to compete with businesses, and why would we want to? We do so much more than dole out information and find DVDs. We manage meeting rooms, conduct tax preparation seminars and ESL classes, help transients, and provide readers’ advisory. Libraries are the fulcrums of communities. In short, the library is more than a business, and patrons are more than mere customers.”