With the leaps in technology, including the ways that books are produced and consumed, we have to ask the questions:
Is the public and academic library on the endangered species list? Will it be extinct by the next generation?
What Dangers Does the Library Face?
- “The Cloud”- The growing presence of the “cloud” for document storage. Google has been scanning books for years now with their card catalogue & digitization project. You can access free books here.
- E-books- E-books could also be a danger and also the future of libraries. It will just depend on how well and how fast they adapt to change. Amazon’s unlimited pay per access approach is challenging the ways we own and view books.
- Increasing Costs-Did you know it costs an average of $4.26 to keep a book in circulation on a library shelf for a year? (P. 44) Scholarly Journal costs are also rising along with librarian pay (in which most of their time is devoted to shelving and moving books, not helping patrons).
- Decreasing Budgets- It is predicted a 1% decrease for library budgets in North America, while Asia Pacific will see a 2.1% increase. (Source) With increasing governmental budgetal constraints one can only imagine this trend to continue.
What is a Library?
The library that you and I grew up with, won’t be the library that our children and grandchildren will experience. Their primary role as the source of all information and suppository of knowledge is drastically changing.
Let’s face it. As I write this article citing several studies and sources, I didn’t open a single book or consult a dictionary. No card catalogue or microfiche had to be utilized.
The internet, powerful search engines, and educational sources I was familiar with were the tools I used. Twenty years ago this article couldn’t have been written without the library and its resources.
Changes for Libraries to Make
If libraries are to continue to play an important role in our society they’ll have to change. Below are a few recommended changes from the Education Advisory Board:
- Embrace Technology- The NCSU library is doing a great job of using mobile apps and integrating technology into their library system.
- Purchasing and print books on demand rather than having the ‘ideal’ library. A 2010 Cornell study revealed that 55% of books purchased since 1990 were never circulated.
- Digitize and share special collections.
- Increased collaborative collection planning instead of each institution ‘owning’ the books.
- Repurpose the space that large collections of books take up for more collaborative learning, wi-fi access, allow food and drink, integration of academic support services, etc. (p 46).
I wonder if my grandchildren will ever even walk through a public library stack of books or speak with a librarian.
What will a Librarians Role be?
If the library is endangered, then most certainly the role of librarians are in question. A recent librarian faced this reality when his library went through major renovations. What is a librarian without a library?
The Education Advisory Board recommends (page 58) several changes for a librarian’s future role:
- Outsource the work intensive book shelving and cataloging duties to non-librarians.
- Reallocate librarians time to data curation, online services, multi-media support, etc.
- Embed librarians into our everyday online lives. QuestionPoint is one such experiment.
- Regain their role as teachers and instructors by becoming specialists in online information.
The library will change and in reality must change within our lifetime. All of the other ways we use media has been replaced. When is the last time you went to a physical movie store to rent a movie? What about buying a physical music CD?
Borders closing is the most recent example of a physical bookstore not reacting fast enough to the online demands. Public and academic libraries are next.
As educators and parents it will be up to us to determine what this library of the future will look like for our children.
