The main purpose of public libraries

In a traditional sense, libraries are places with a large collection of books. However, the digital age has given today’s libraries new means of storing and retrieving information on media other than the printed pages. CD-ROMs, videos and DVDs are widely used in public libraries, and they serve both the libraries and the readers.

Opponents of a high-tech library would argue that multimedia facilities are expensive. This may be true to some extent because a DVD player is often more expensive than a bookshelf. However, with immense storage capacity, these new high-tech media can actually save the most valuable resource – space. A computer disc 12cm in diameter can store a whole Encyclopaedia Britannica which, in printed volumes, would occupy a complete shelf section.

Furthermore, magnetic and digital media can store information much longer than traditional means. It takes great care to protect books from moisture, fire or human damage, and a book in a library serves readers for only a few hundred years. But digital files, easily duplicated and restored, can perhaps last forever.

Finally, visiting a library with multiple media access is much more interesting. Multimedia resources offer readers a dynamic combination of images, sounds and videos. A reader can actually hear Martin Luther King crying out “I have a dream”, or roam about the world with an interactive atlas.

In conclusion, modern technology has turned a public library from a place of lending and borrowing books into an interactive centre for the spread of human knowledge and experience. The investment in multimedia facilities by a public library is justified and should be encouraged. (265 words)