The Commons

Public Libraries are important for democracy because without this vast archive of free information, we would not be protecting our right to freely expand our knowledge and stay educated. Public libraries relate to the Internet, because just like the Internet, we must keep our free flow of information alive. This is shown in Bollier’s quote from the text stating, “For me, librarians have always embodied some of the most fundamental virtues of Western civilization. They are dedicated to the freedom to read and learn and share information. They are committed to the free flow of knowledge, which is indispensable in a democracy. Americans must not only have free access to knowledge and creative works, we must be able to re-use and share them in order to create still other works.” For years public libraries have been the way for any common man to gain knowledge at his or her wish, and the Internet provides us with that same ability, only in better, faster, more precise ways.

Vaidhyanathan compares the “anarchy” in the library to the chaotic way in which the internet works, and the ways that it has potential to be limited due to its nature. We have so much information and data at our hands that it can nearly be overwhelming at times, yet we need to preserve this means of acquiring information in order to not let it slip away to the powers at large trying to restrict it and its use. I like that both the authors refer to “the commons” and the ways that we must keep this forum alive, and yet they realize that it is not always easy to do so (in fact, it can be quite hard, due to what Bollier refers to as our “void in our cultural vocabulary”).

Public Libraries are not exactly a “hip” place to go anymore like Jeff pointed out, and in fact I would say that the numbers of frequent library visitors is dwindling by the day. However, I still think we need to find a way to preserve these information outlets, for they truly are a staple to democracy and Western Civilization at that. I feel weird thinking that I might have to reminisce to my grandchildren about what a public library is, yet at that point they might already have a Wikipedia program implemented into their mind computers that allows them to instantly access the information to any term (what a tangent that one is!) Also, just like Jeff pointed out, I think that the term “the commons” will become synonymous with piracy because more and more we are seeing the expansion of the file sharing of information and media formats, yet more and more it is being made criminal. We need to find a happy medium ground between today’s copyright laws and complete anarchy of file sharing.