As reported in the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore County is transforming its libraries to make use of new technologies and respond to community interests.  One addition is called Storyville, a “magical town” for children aged 0-5.  Storyville is only one example of the library system’s evolution over the last several years, however, others include:

• a rapidly expanding electronic data base, coupled with shrinking reference sections of printed materials;
• access to 67,000 e-books and 22,000 audiobooks, and soaring interest in those resources (the number of e-books checked out last year nearly tripled over the previous year, although that was only 2 percent of all items borrowed);
• Zinio, a distribution service for digital magazines added this year, that allows library users to electronically access about 100 magazines;
• an enhanced summer reading program that this year served more than 50,000 children, a record high;
• free customer access to 443 personal computers — including 70 at the county’s newest and largest branch in Owings Mills — which combined attracted more than one million users last year.

Baltimore County is also embracing the library’s function as a meeting place for residents.

The Owings Mills branch, which opened in March, caters to that philosophy: It has an array of meeting rooms and study areas, including a large community meeting room that can be divided into three areas and another large study area on the third floor. It also has a café.

In the words of James Fish, director of the Baltimore County Library,

“We try to be responsive to the public. To be worthy of being a public library, you have to evolve.”

For more information, see the full story from the Sun.