On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 4:33 AM, Carcharoth <[email protected]> wrote: > Noticed this article about UK libraries and I thought the mentions of > Wikipedia would be of interest. > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12340505 > > The Andrew Dalby mentioned there is presumably: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Andrew_Dalby > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Dalby > > Author of: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_and_Wikipedia > > [Bit off-topic, but has anyone read that book?] > > Does anyone here (particularly in the UK) use libraries regularly for > Wikipedia work? > > What about public libraries in the USA and other countries? Are they > well-funded or not? > > Carcharoth
I know of no place where libraries are as well-funded as they would like to be :) Libraries in the US are often poorly funded because they depend on local tax revenue (city or county). In a recession, when people don't buy as many goods and there are not as many real estate sales, this local revenue can drop dramatically and the corresponding impact on libraries (as on public schools and other social services) can be dramatic. See e.g. http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/libfunding/public/index.cfm for a sense of this across the U.S. These cuts affect all the services libraries provide -- everything from internet access for people who don't otherwise have it, to helping kids learn to read, to buying good books and reference materials for the community. Libraries are often the only common indoor public space in a community, and are certainly the only such spaces devoted to learning and research. And I certainly hope you all are using libraries for your Wikipedia work! It would make it much more difficult to find good sources if you weren't. -- phoebe, who's a librarian :) -- * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers <at> gmail.com * _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
