Ramblings, citations and "brainwaves" of a college librarian in Toronto. 475 square feet refers to the size of my home, not the size of my office or library.
Asking the Right Questions About the Future of Libraries
Published Saturday, March 04, 2006 by James | E-mail this post
My big pet peeve with futurists is that they are often knowledgeable, brillaint people who propose answers to the "wrong questions". Stephen A. recently brought Thomas Frey's (DaVinci Institute) wildly quoted 'future of libraries' piece to my attention again, and I remembered why it irked me the first time I read it. It is a great read, but fails to ask some key questions.
Thomas outlines ten trends that will guide the evolution of libraries, and this list has been extensively quoted and discussed. A few thoughts about some of his "trends".
Trend #1 - Communication systems are continually changing the way people access information
Trend #2 - All technology ends. All technologies commonly used today will be replaced by something new.
Okay, but over the last five decades, have technology trends been generally good or bad for libraries? To me, that is the interesting question. Looking back are things getting better or worse? Change by its very nature is rarely neutral. Microfiche was good. It gave us access to a wider range of content than many libraries had before and it did not take much space. Television many can argue was bad. Reading as a leisure activity declined. Libraries were technically and legally unable to archive or store this new cultural content. The World Wide Web was initially good. People came into the building to access it. New online information products enabled libraries to expand the range and depth of full-text content they could make available to their users. Information literacy emerged as a cornerstone role for many libraries.
Lately, the web and other network infrastructure has become a negative for libraries as they continue to loose ground in terms of access to content. They cannot digitize they copyright protected holdings nor can they acquire the non-textual content their communities seek.
Trend #9 – We are transitioning from a product-based economy to an experience based economy
Trend #10 - Libraries will transition from a center of information to a center of culture
Music, movies, images, multimedia, are largely off limits for libraries. We generally cannot acquire this cultural content in the format and access channels our users seek. We can buy a CD or DVD but cannot provide internet access to the digital content on it. The ebook the teacher wants her class to use is only available as a paid direct-to-consumer download. It cannot be licensed to libraries. Old television shows are also only available as a paid direct-to-consumer download. This is not to say the CBC and BBC is not making content easily available, but the vast majority of content people ask me about, we could not buy if we wanted to. But guess what? They can access it illegally on file sharing networks. How big are libraries in making content available on mobile telephones? Copyright holders are working with the phone companies, not us. Some music tracks are exclusively available on mobile telephone networks. Seems like a problem to me.
If libraries cannot provide access to content, on the platform and access channel people seek, we're in trouble. It the digital media age it seems like we are increasingly persona non grata in the marketplace for digital products. Text, is the exception. If the decline of the role of text, in people's lives, continues on its current trajectory, we have a content problem for the future. What value will we be able to provide?
Perhaps we will be limited to becoming repositories of local cultural products produced by non-commercial enties?
Thomas outlines ten trends that will guide the evolution of libraries, and this list has been extensively quoted and discussed. A few thoughts about some of his "trends".
Trend #1 - Communication systems are continually changing the way people access information
Trend #2 - All technology ends. All technologies commonly used today will be replaced by something new.
Okay, but over the last five decades, have technology trends been generally good or bad for libraries? To me, that is the interesting question. Looking back are things getting better or worse? Change by its very nature is rarely neutral. Microfiche was good. It gave us access to a wider range of content than many libraries had before and it did not take much space. Television many can argue was bad. Reading as a leisure activity declined. Libraries were technically and legally unable to archive or store this new cultural content. The World Wide Web was initially good. People came into the building to access it. New online information products enabled libraries to expand the range and depth of full-text content they could make available to their users. Information literacy emerged as a cornerstone role for many libraries.
Lately, the web and other network infrastructure has become a negative for libraries as they continue to loose ground in terms of access to content. They cannot digitize they copyright protected holdings nor can they acquire the non-textual content their communities seek.
Trend #9 – We are transitioning from a product-based economy to an experience based economy
Trend #10 - Libraries will transition from a center of information to a center of culture
Music, movies, images, multimedia, are largely off limits for libraries. We generally cannot acquire this cultural content in the format and access channels our users seek. We can buy a CD or DVD but cannot provide internet access to the digital content on it. The ebook the teacher wants her class to use is only available as a paid direct-to-consumer download. It cannot be licensed to libraries. Old television shows are also only available as a paid direct-to-consumer download. This is not to say the CBC and BBC is not making content easily available, but the vast majority of content people ask me about, we could not buy if we wanted to. But guess what? They can access it illegally on file sharing networks. How big are libraries in making content available on mobile telephones? Copyright holders are working with the phone companies, not us. Some music tracks are exclusively available on mobile telephone networks. Seems like a problem to me.
If libraries cannot provide access to content, on the platform and access channel people seek, we're in trouble. It the digital media age it seems like we are increasingly persona non grata in the marketplace for digital products. Text, is the exception. If the decline of the role of text, in people's lives, continues on its current trajectory, we have a content problem for the future. What value will we be able to provide?
Perhaps we will be limited to becoming repositories of local cultural products produced by non-commercial enties?
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