Here in Ottawa, we have a private talk-radio station, CFRA. One of their longtime hosts is a man named Lowell Green, who has been a broadcaster since the late 1950s, with a break of a few years when he unsuccessfully ran for election and owned a business or two. He’s also written a number of books, some non-fiction (How the Granola-crunching, Tree-hugging Thug Huggers are Wrecking Our Country! is the title of one of his books).

Mr. Green piqued my interest enough today to do something that I rarely do — phone in to a talk show. What was the topic? Libraries and the Kindle.

I was writing and listening to the radio, as I often do, and heard Green suggest that we should close the Ottawa Public Library and give each resident of Ottawa a Kindle, from Amazon. He argued that there are several hundred thousand books online and available to read with a Kindle, and that we’d save “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Green has little use for libraries, and complains regularly about them giving away free DVDs, plans for a new main branch that will be a significant building project, and offering people free Internet access.

My conversation with him was by no means a triumph. As is his wont, he ran roughshod over me and I didn’t nearly achieve the eloquence I would like to have (which is why I’m here at the bully pulpit).

Is Green right? Are libraries passe, here and elsewhere? I say no. Why? Here’s why:

• There are a lot of people who don’t have the money for either paid Internet access or the equipment to get it. The library is important for them, especially now when so many services are based online.
• Families use libraries a LOT. Kids read bazillions of books, and it’s pretty great for families to be able to borrow books for their kids rather than buy them.
• The Kindle is an interesting device, but I think it’s limited. First, even if every resident got a Kindle, there’s still a cost to every book that is purchased. Second, it’s black and white, limiting its visual appeal for magazines or children’s books.
• The book is a tactile medium. As much of a geek as I am, I still love opening a book up, writing notes in the margins, etc etc.
• Libraries are able to offer all sorts of media, and that’s a GOOD thing. Why shouldn’t there be movies available at the library? Or CDs? When the public lending library first existed, it carried books only because that was IT. It only makes sense for modern libraries to use modern media.
• Libraries offer public programs — in the case of Ottawa’s, hundreds of programs — for people of all ages. A Kindle won’t do that.

There was a time — a LOONG time — when I spent a SHITload of money on books and on magazines. But times and priorities changed in our household, and in the last few years, my partner and I have become big library users. Since January, I’ve borrowed about 60 items from the library. Mostly books, but some magazines and some audio CDs.

I’ve also used my library’s online suggestion form to add a bunch of books to the collection, and still marvel that I can just suggest a book and they BUY it. Whee!

When I pick up my books from my local branch, the Rosemount, I see mothers and fathers with young children, I see seniors, I see people who are, I guess, recent immigrants. They’re getting help from librarians, they’re applying for job on the library computers, they’re playing video games on the computers, they’re going to storytime, and all sorts of other stuff.

I think the undercurrent for Green is that libraries are a free public good, and they give his conservative political views a nasty rash. He would prefer a more libertarian system where if you want a book, you pay for it, and so does everyone else.

I’m as much of a technophile as anyone, I think. But I don’t think it’s an either-or here. It’s not Kindles for everyone and shut the library down. The two tools are complements, not adversaries. It’s technology AND it’s touch.

Green told me that I was out of touch, that I needed to get with it. But to me, The true promise of social media tools like the Kindle isn’t the replacement of other media; it’s the EXTENSION of other media.

I think it’s sad that Lowell Green, author, would want to shut down a prime means of getting his words in front of people’s eyeballs.

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