Libraries Will Disappear by 2019
Slate.com is running an interesting slide show/article on building libraries (specifically downtown city libraries) in the age of Google. The slide show features several contemparary interpretations of libraries in cities such as: Chicago, Nashville and Seattle. One of the interesting critiques of current libraries is on the building itself. Many libraries reflect ”an outmoded structure erected long before the advent of the digital world.” This seems to put libraries at odds with Google and other digital resources. Libraries being the large lumbering dinosaurs on the verge of extinction, Google being the mobile and adaptable (nothing can stop me) cockroach. What is interesting to me about this perceived contradiction is that libraries are physical buildings that exist in a geographic location and are subject to both the changing value of information as well as the changing needs of individual cities. One of the interesting points made in the article is the changing nature of what makes a vibrant downtown environment. The argument made in the slide show is that the “library-as-monument” may not have the same appeal it once had. And cities like Chicago and Nashville that revisited old library tropes in their new library design may have missed an opportunity to re-establish the library as a common space for people. The slide show concludes with the argument that libraries in the current form have reached a tipping point (thanks Malcolm). The library as a monument or repository will no longer be a successful model for libraries. Instead of libraries disappearing all together, libraries will mutate into a social space and an authority on information. What I like about this revisioning of the library is that it breaks the binary opposition to Google, the “there can be only one” mentality. Instead libraries can remain very much relevant and Google can remain very much like a cockroach, growing and growing and being harder and harder to squash.
Writer,
ouvyt
Topics: Education, Research | 1 Comment »
One Response to “Libraries Will Disappear by 2019”
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February 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I agree with this vision of where libraries are going to go, or should go, in many ways. However I am not certain how “new” this really is. Libraries have for a long time now put plenty of energy behind community events, cultivating social space, etc. In fact this has been a massive component of most childrens sections in libraries for quite some time now. Nor do I think they will cease to be important as a “repository.” People still read recreationally, enjoy looking at art books, etc. and may not always went to pay for the privilege. While Google may answer many questions it doesn’t provide me with a stack of novels for a long weekend. And, as many have observed, reading on-line and reading a physical text are not equally pleasurable experiences for everyone.