I listened with a combination of sadness and excitement when the Detroit Free Press announced this week that it would stop home delivery of newspapers in the manner we have been accustomed to for the past 100 years.  Well.  I haven’t been accustomed to home delivery for 100 years, but you know what I mean.  Beginning in January they will only be delivering a paper newspaper (and to so many people what other kind of newspaper is there?) to our doors on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  The rest of the week customers will be receiving their subscriptions through email delivery, where a PDF format of the newspaper will arrive for $12.00 a month.  This is a real example of so many things that we discussed while I was in graduate school getting my Masters in Information.  And here it is in real time, real life, happening so much faster than I imagined.  Remember when we were kids and they told us someday in the distant future there would be cars that would drive in the air, above the congestion of the freeways?  Well this feels, to me a librarian, like that.  Only it’s now.  And right here, not out in California, always a technology leader, or in New York City, it’s happening right here in the Midwest.

I’m not sure how I feel about it.  Suddenly I am nostalgic for the feel of newsprint.  And I wonder how libraries in the area are going to respond.  Will they send someone out to a newsstand to buy a paper newspaper on the days it’s not delivered?  Or will they subscribe and have a computer monitor available for our regulars that read the paper every day.  And will those regulars revolt?  And what about people that have been getting their newspapers for decades and don’t have a computer?  In these economic times (because face it, it’s the economy that is forcing this issue to happen now rather than later) is the Detroit Free Press turning it’s back on those customers who aren’t technologically astute?  Mostly older folks, or folks from economic disadvantaged families may find their access to the news limited.  Is this fair?  Or right?  Hard to say.  The newspaper will still be available in printed form, just not home delivered.

On the other hand, how exciting is this?  We discussed in classes that this period in the world history, particularly the United States’ history, will be considered a time similar to the Industrial Revolution because we are going through so many significant changes.  We don’t always recognize when something changes in life altering ways.  Each individual change may not seem significant, but we are living through so many of these changes.  Someday, maybe in 100 years, people will marvel at these days, and remark how the world shifted at the turn of the century.   And perhaps they will laugh at how antiquated we were, reading from newsprint, waiting for the news to show up in our driveways every morning.

But for now I wonder about that older person who has received the newspaper every day for the past sixty or seventy years.  The people who depend on that newspaper to connect them to the world.  I hope they can stay connected, and not just through the television pontiffs.  Reading a newspaper allows for individual thought and independent opinion making.  I hope the Detroit Free Press doesn’t leave a whole segment of our population behind as the rest of us move into the future.