Week 1 Class Reflection

A library without books?  Melvil could have dealt with it.

Why do people keep asking me what will happen to libraries when they don’t have books?  Books will never actually disappear; just their need physical space on the shelf will change.  As long as society has the desire to disseminate information, libraries as a place (or if you must) a concept will exist.  The relevancy of libraries remains intact.  It is the library’s goal to provide information and instruction to its patrons.  These services can be adapted into many forms.  As Kristin pointed out with her example of the “drawer library” in Minnesota the Wall Street Journal charges that “New Library Technologies Dispense With Librarians”, I disagree.  If a community is forced to close an existing library facility with a “drawer library”, then yes, this new technology is taking the place of many librarians face-to-face contact with patrons.  BUT someone still needs to maintain the catalog… design and upkeep the library’s digital interface… maintain and improve the collection… retrieve and shelve books from a library facility somewhere… and deliver and collect books from the drawer facility.  All of these duties (some by library clerks) are necessary to maintain even a drawer library.  I believe that new technologies are not dispensing with librarians per say, but they ARE eliminating important connections between libraries and their patrons.  THAT is a problem.

This is where Melvil enters the fray.

Online catalogs may preclude the need for a large percentage of patron/librarian interactions, but library instruction is still an important component of a library’s mission and should not be forgotten in the up swell of emotion in response to the possibility of eBooks eliminating beloved print books from the shelves.  According to Kristin’s lecture, Melvil Dewey exposed that libraries should serve as resources for continuing education.   That is where I think the future of libraries is- as the increasing amount of library instruction job postings reveal.

NPR reported this week on a library without books in Texas  and yes, it is eerily similar to an Apple store, but I say, “What’s wrong with that?”  Apple stores are certainly a consumer analyst’s dream, but they are not just a facility to buy the latest iProduct- they are dripping with “instructional librarians”!  Ever talk with a Genius?  I have, and I must say I always feel better about my abilities to interface with my iProducts afterwards.  Can’t the library do this for its patrons?  Why not?  Many of the most-loved libraries do provide needed instructional services, suggested by and heavily attended by their patrons.  Melvil would be proud.

Librarians need to re-invent themselves as teachers to maintain the all-important face-to-face contact with patrons.  This instructional contact does not always have to be through personal contact though, it also occurs through webinars and podcasts.  Just like an Apple Genius, a librarian should be that font of information that patrons go to when they need help, when they want to learn more, and when they want to share knowledge with a community of learners.  I’m not worried about libraries without books… libraries have so many resources to offer- WE just have to offer them or somebody else will.  Just don’t make me wear that ugly shirt- I look horrible in royal blue;)