Check out county Library in Gilbert.
It's at:
Southeast Regional Library - GilbertSource Maricopa County libraries become more technologically savvy County libraries become more technologically savvy by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - Jul. 30, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Walk into a Maricopa County library, and it may feel more like a commercial bookstore: card catalogs are a thing of the past and the Dewey Decimal System, the standard book-classification method for more than 100 years, is obsolete. In the past decade, the county's public libraries have gone through several makeovers. Some of them are conspicuous, such as self-checkout kiosks and solar panels at the White Tank branch. Others, not so obvious - for example, the virtual library branch has a growing selection of e-books and downloadable music. Staying relevant has been the primary challenge facing public libraries during the 12 years that Harry Courtright has been director of the Maricopa County Library District. Google is fast replacing encyclopedias and library references as a source of information, and many people prefer to access materials online rather than physically going to a library. Over the years, Courtright, 73, has stuck to his philosophy of adapting to the public's morphing needs, and making his libraries more customer-friendly. During his tenure, he has expanded the library district from seven to 17 libraries across the Valley, and a virtual branch connects them all. Some of his changes have gained national attention, most notably scrapping the Dewey system. "(The future) depends on how savvy librarians become in (handling) the changes that are beating at their door and learning how to cope with them, because if they can't cope and aren't willing to make the changes, somebody will do it," said Courtright, who retires next week. "If public libraries don't adapt to that, what is the future?" County officials are sorry to see Courtright retire. During his dozen years at the helm, the county's library system has grown and kept pace with the changing technological times. The transition to a Dewey-less system was a practical idea for Courtright. People came to county libraries to browse around for books. He believed classifying books by topics was a more customer-friendly system. The Perry Branch Library in Gilbert opened in 2007, Dewey-less. Currently, eight branches have ditched the Dewey system. All 17 branches eventually will be Dewey-less. "Dewey has obviously been around a long time, and it was set up for librarians to access books behind the counter and bring books to customers," said Allison Burke, school media specialist at the Perry Branch. "It didn't bother me at all. As a librarian, we love words. Going to Dewey-less meant labeling everything with words rather than numbers." Although some library purists considered the conversion close to blasphemous, other libraries in the U.S. have followed suit. The response to going Dewey-less remains mixed, said Audra Caplan, former president of the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association. The Dewey system is helpful to those conducting research, but books are easier to find when they are classified by topics, she said. The need among Maricopa County residents in recent years has been employment-related services. It is a growing trend across the country. More people are going to county libraries to apply for jobs on the computer, so more employment-related services are being implemented to accommodate that need. But with tightened budgets, libraries are challenged with providing more services at a lower cost, Courtright said. He has consolidated his district in several ways over the years. There is a one-stop customer desk at each library, rather than having several desks that serve different purposes. One library employee is available to provide services ranging from circulation to searching for books. New library branches are also smaller because there is not as much need for a physical building. "Public libraries have to change the way they look at how they provide service and not be worried that people don't come in the door," Courtright said. "As long as you're providing the information and material they want, does it matter if they come in the door?" There may not be one answer to keeping public libraries relevant. But Courtright said he hopes to see Maricopa County libraries continuing to solicit feedback from the public and changing its services to their needs. "I think there will always be a public library. I think it will be very different than what it is today. I think it will be much more of a community function," he said. "I would like to think that 15 years from now there will be a lot of thriving community libraries that people love and use for all kinds of purposes, and the era of the 'big library' is over." |