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Comment by jmacd | Hacker News Reader

Libraries and librarians always seem to far ahead of things on a meta level. My town (Halifax, Nova Scotia) also built a beautiful library recently. Once of the criticisms levelled at it was that it didn't really have stacks all over the place.

It has become an incredibly valuable community hub. Books are a bit of an excuse to enjoy its architecture and function. I've been there for countless hours with my children as they have grown up.

I'm also consistently impressed by the staff. In a time when every business is complaining about staffing and using it as an excuse for bad quality and bad service, it seems that most libraries are staffed with total professionals who do their job day in and day out and do it well.

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I co-founded a library technology company, and I didn’t realize this until those initial discussions with my cofounders. Librarians were so far ahead of the curve of adopting electronic delivery. They came up with a variety of technologies and standards to accomplish this when nothing else had been specified or built. It’s quite inspiring.

I even met the librarian who invented the phrase “surfing the internet” at a librarian conference. Yes, a librarian was there to coin phrases at the dawn of the web!

> I even met the librarian who invented the phrase “surfing the internet”...

A bit of internet surfing turned up her story about it: https://www.netmom.com/surfing/birth-of-a-metaphor

I'm in loose circles involving archivists in addition to librarians and can confirm that they have some of the most nuanced and insightful takes on information management: discovery, curation, search, etc., especially how these systems serve human users as interfaces to knowledge. It seems obvious to say but feels important to reiterate.

See, this is why I come to the comments. That’s incredible.

My introduction to the Internet as an immigrant back in 1996 was hugely thanks to accommodating librarians at the middle school I attended. Netscape on a 486 running Win 3.11 was not ideal, but it's also where I created my first website, a Simpsons fan site on Tripod (rip).

The Halifax central library really is a sight to behold. That is the sort of investment i would hope the public could rally behind because it is visible and immensely useful. Even if you don't visit the actual building, the online services provided by Canadian libraries is among the best in the world.

Many Canadian cities are upgrading their libraries and i for one am overjoyed to see that!

I just looked it up. That is indeed a beautiful library!

For those who want to look I think they're referring to https://www.google.com/search?q=Halifax+Central+Library&tbm=...

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