NORTON SHORES, MI - Michigan's top librarian made the case for the local library's place in an information age Wednesday in Norton Shores.

Library of Michigan's State Librarian Randy Riley spoke at the Muskegon Area District Library, which will ask voters Aug. 2 to renew and increase its tax rate.

"The internet's a tool - it's not doing everything," Riley said. He likened it to a set of encyclopedias - limited in its scope and application. "It can't hold your hand, it can't direct you."

"What a good librarian can do is help you get to what you need," he said.

Internet searches by students researching school papers are often a "crap shoot" he said, with many not clicking past the first page of search results listed by Google. Research librarians, he said, are able to help vet sources, find rare books or grant access to online databases.

Riley isn't scared of the Internet -- "libraries are better off because of it," he said.

Before being named the state librarian in 2014, he was coordinator of the Michigan eLibrary, also known as MeL, where he led the redesign of the website and addition of discovery search capabilities.

"If your library is just a book warehouse, you're almost already lost the fight, because it has to be so much more than that," he said.

"Being right isn't enough. We have to start having serious conversations with our communities," he said, to see what services are in demand. However, more technology-based services sought by the public do cost more money.

He said the state doesn't take a position on whether tax renewals or increases are needed, but funding is an ongoing concern.

"Millages are crucial to our libraries keeping the doors open - that's how they're funded," he said.

The case for a Muskegon County library tax

The Muskegon Area District Library operates 9 branch libraries plus a Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Its tax base includes most of the Muskegon County except for Fruitport Township, Fruitport Village, the Muskegon Public School District and Whitehall Public School District.

MADL Director Kelley Richards has called the Aug. 2 tax proposal a "last stand" for the district library.

The Muskegon Area District Library will ask voters in its district to renew and increase its current tax rate by half a mill, from 0.749 mills to1.249 mills, for 10 years through 2026. The owner of a $100,000 house with a $50,000 taxable value would pay $64.50 a year instead of $37.45 a year under the current rate.

While MADL has its detractors - Fruitport Township residents have voted to leave the district - boosters like North Muskegon's Darnell Gundy-Reed are optimistic about the tax vote and what it would accomplish.

"Patrons or customers are always asking for things that because of our finances, we cannot give them," she said.

In more affluent communities, some bells and whistles are covered by donations and volunteer work. At the North Muskegon Branch Library, the local Friends of the Library group has purchased a 3-D printer and other science-related gadgets.

"One computer is dedicated to kids," she said. "Basically, it's games - but that's how kids learn nowadays."

But she said the libraries should offer equal public access to information, not dependent on age or ability.

"It's a great place for discovery," Gundy-Reed said.