The internet is officially noted as commencing in 1995. Fast forward to 2024 and the technology boom has entered the AI phase, with no end in sight.
Many industries and businesses have benefitted from the digital era, the Poplar Bluff Library being one of many local benefactors.
“It brought a lot of opportunity to better serve the patrons of our community,” said Library Director Shannon Midyett, who is in her 29th year with the library. “The problem with libraries is location and hours; not everyone can get to your location, and not everyone can get to your location within the hours you are open. The digital age brought things like 24/7 access to library collections through apps, e-books and audio books, online learning platforms and research apps. This just gave us the opportunity to provide even more services to our community.”
Public computer terminals are another benefit that has derived from the technology shift.
Currently, “There are 26 public computers at our two locations, and we also have an 11-unit latptop lab that the public can use,” said Midyett.
“We offer public computers and Wi-Fi access to the community. So, those who need to come in and access remote work, or online learners, or filing your taxes or Social Security, all of those have moved to online environments,” said Midyett.
Management teams for large corporations have even heeded the library call. Midyett noted several organizations have come to them for training on new digital platforms. The U.S. Army Reserve, state governmental offices, Kroger and Dollar General “have come in and use our facilities to train their management teams or new staff.”
With the technology shift comes constant learning on the multitude of applications and software programs, and the library serves as a tutorial outlet.
While the format change brought some challenges, the newly added services have brought about added opportunities.
Added Midyett: “All I have seen are opportunities, in my opinion. We are able to offer one-on-one tech assistance and one-one-one research assistance using those tools. It was more of a challenge during the pre-digital age, when everything was in a paper index. And you only had access to the collection in [the] building. It was much harder to work with online learners, with researchers to access the information they needed. And that is something that is readily available now that we are in an environment where we are connected to all of the libraries across the globe. We are able to research databases and connect to online digital archives.”
Programs and Services
Developmental tasks for staff that are customer-enhanced duties are also at the forefront.
In short, technology brought automation.
“Performing transformational, front-line service and working more one-on-one, where we are able to offer more programs — book clubs, story times, computer classes — staff are able to commit their time to developing those programs for the community, rather than taking on some of those more mundane, clerical tasks,” said Midyett. “We have harnessed automation to take care of those back-office tasks.”
Recently, a collection of Daily American Republic issues was digitized.
Said Midyett: “The collection did not have an index, so you couldn’t search by name, or by keyword. It would take hours and hours to locate. We digitized that, and it launched last year, from 1878 to 2011. It is available 24/7 from the newspaper’s dot com platform. Anyone with a Poplar Bluff library card can search 150 years of newspaper by keyword.”
By the numbers
• E-book and digital borrowing have quadrupled in the last 10 years and digital borrowing now represents 30% of the library’s total annual circulation. There were 12,021 digital borrows processed in 2013, and 52,339 in 2023
• Digital borrowing year-to-date in 2024 has increased 38% from the same period last year.
• Wi-Fi users have increased by 500% in the previous 10 years, with the library averaging 65 users per day. This does not include public computer users. The library averages 45 computer users per day, and a total of 110 visitors every day using library public computers and library Wi-Fi.
• Since COVID, use of online learning and research platforms has increased 155%.