The Books Remarkable Longevity in the Face of New Communications Technologies - Past, Present and Future

The circulation of popular books, especially novels, has been the dominant role played by public libraries since the founding of the Boston Public Library in the middle of the 19th Century. The attraction of stories that libraries collect is powerful and continues to serve a genuine, widespread need in the face of the respective debuts of film, radio, TV, and the Internet. But the circulation of human stories - in print, audiocassette, and video cassette formats - without attendant advisory services and related value-added contributions by librarians, fails to realize the potential that libraries can service for users who want to answer the call of stories, but are not quite sure which ones would serve them best.