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Shop nowBibliotech
Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google
Narrator
Tom Zingarelli
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
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Length
5 hours 45 minutes
Language
English
Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information.
In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible—by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online.
Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal.
John Palfrey is the author or coauthor of several books, including Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, Intellectual Property Strategy, and Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems. He is Head of School at Phillips Andover Academy. He also led the effort to reorganize the Harvard Law School Library and is the founding chairman of the Digital Public Library of America. John lives in Andover, Massachusetts.
A veteran voice artist, Tom Zingarelli has produced and narrated many audiobooks in the last several years. He has also recorded books for the Connecticut State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. His voice was featured on the popular PBS children's television program Between the Lions and in the off-Broadway production of Ruthless, the Musical. Commercially, Tom has recorded for the Connecticut Department of Health, the American Heart Association, and several corporations and universities. He is the on-camera and voiceover star of the ten-part video series Greatest American Tall Tales and Legends, about legendary American heroes like Johnny Appleseed and Davy Crockett, popular in schools and libraries nationwide. Tom is also the voice of Maurice the mouse (and his ninety-eight grandmice) in the children's interactive audiobook series Maurice's Valises. He is a veteran actor of many live radio re-creations, including Lights Out, Suspense, and Johnny Dollar, and he is a frequent reader for dramatic and literature programs. Recently, Tom became an audio describer for the blind and visually impaired of Broadway theater through Describe!, a program of the Healing Arts Institute, and for the Yale Repertory Theater.