We serve up freedom every day at the Library. And if you want the freedom to decide for yourself what is news and what is fact, we have the tools for you — 75 tools to be exact .
I know that a lot of you use the Internet to keep up with what is going on in the world via the news on the World Wide Web. As a ‘news junkie’ I believe this is where the Internet has really delivered on its promises of freedom. But first let me talk about what computers have come to mean in libraries.
Our 75 computers, because they are connected to the Internet, are real Swiss army knives when it comes to all the things you can do: Register your new start-up company, trace your ancestry, study for the SAT, send email, watch YouTube, do your taxes, write the Great American Novel. It’s clear to all of us here at the library that the Internet is a core service that is fast approaching books and great service in what you expect to be available when you come to the library. A few days ago I read about a library in California that is opening a new branch with no books, only computers! We’re not going there of course but it does speak to the place computers have taken on in public libraries. But let me get back now to the explosion of freedom of choice the Internet offers for news and facts.
Who decides what’s news?
Jerry Seinfeld observed that “It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”
The same can be said for any television news program, even in today’s 24 hour news cycle. Every program has an anchor or a managing editor or producer or somebody deciding what is worthy to make it to air or in print.
I remember – and here I will betray my advancing age – in 1968 there were three or four people in the entire U.S. ultimately deciding what stories made it into the 24 minutes of my national evening news program of choice. Uncle Walter (Cronkite) at CBS, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC, and whoever was in the chair at ABC at the moment. Things weren’t much different for radio and print.
Enter cable TV – that’s better!
So for decades I would estimate a few hundred people decided what was news for 225 million Americans. Then came CNN in 1980 and the dawn of 24 hour news. More choices to be sure, but really how many more? Much better access but freedom to get your news from many sources had been promised but not yet delivered.
Innumerable Choices!
Cue the Internet and the World Wide Web. Now, at any moment I can get the online take on a story out of the Mideast more ways than my editor would ever put up with me listing here: CNN, Fox, BBC, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Jerusalem Post, Sydney Herald, over hundreds of thousands of blog posts, thousands of Twitter users who may actually be there, supplemented by YouTube and photo uploads. How many “managing editors” do we have now? How many computers are connected to the Internet?
This is freedom delivered through the simple fact of an Internet connection. It is freedom to get your information and news and data from so many sources that even though there is lots of junk and fluff out there the chances of real facts and truth making their way to you have increased dramatically. And that is not because there was some great conspiracy to keep those things from you before – far from it. People are just people, forced to make choices within their own world views and limited resources and time available. But the Internet overcomes those limits out of pure scale.
So here’s a modest proposal. The next time you are catching up on a news story that interests you, do a search on the topic and pick out some search results from a source you might now ordinarily use. Look on YouTube or Twitter or Facebook and see if someone posted something, someone who was an eyewitness to the event. And remember too that our staff is poised and ready to help you find that resources anytime. We value the Internet as much as you do. It’s about freedom. Guard it and protect it please.
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Gary Werchan |
| Library Systems Coordinator |
| gwerchan@friscotexas.gov |
