Libraries Embrace New Technology

Video conferencing is just one way local libraries are embracing new technology. They have e-readers and use video games in their children's programming. Hundreds of thousands of people visit them to use their computers. Many of them circulate movies more than books. Libraries are changing. They are using new technology and old technology in new ways. They will always be associated with books, but now loaning them is just one facet of what they do. Underlying these changes are two questions: What do people want from libraries and how should libraries remain relevant? Euclid Public Library is changing its website's interface. The new one will offer more Google-like features, Director Donna Perdzock said. "For example, a patron may make lists of what he/she has checked out, find reviews of books and movies, generate a personal list of what is currently checked out and many more services," she said. The library has taken more than 70 years of archives from the recently closed Euclid Sun Journal that it had on microform and digitized it. Matthew Augustine, Euclid library's technology manager, said the archives will eventually be posted on the library's website for visitors to search.