Public libraries should only provide books and should not waste their limited resources on expensive high-tech media such as software, videos or DVDs. Do you agree or disagree?
Public libraries are the great source of knowledge which can be easily affordable by people. It is very important to be cautious on resource that are spent by these libraries. Some may consider spending on softwares, videos and DVDs are important and others argue it may be pointless. Lets consider these scenarios.
Firstly, for common people, public libraries play a significant role in gaining knowledge and resources conveniently. It is very hard for an individual to spend money for a expensive software which is to be used only once. This is where libraries can help in sharing a common pool of resources for everyone’s benefits. It is often difficult for some to gather information by reading content where Video CDs’ from these libraries will help them.
On other hand, public libraries are allocated certain fund for updating their inventory by purchasing new books and magazines. Spending those resources on expensive softwares and DVDs by one library is not worthy. In such cases, public libraries should be networked, and should manage their resource by sharing between the libraries thereby reducing the cost. For example, in Singapore, all public libraries are interconnected and they share resources across libraries through common internet portal.
In conclusion, it is important that public libraries should provide all forms of knowledge accessible to people by managing efficiently. Moreover, it is good to provide certain digital content through internet thereby reducing the cost by buying physical item which depreciate over time.