Libraries must die
There, I said it. Controversial? You bet! And this whole library issue has stirred even my normally inert political and social biases. The library issue in the UK has caught the attention of the public and the media and I think it is indicitive of a lot more than just government short sighted-ness and public stupidity.
Libraries must die in order to change. What do they offer in a society of iPad users and latte drinkers? Such people now tend to read and work in coffee shops. That way, you can have a brew and talk to someone without some draconian woman in paisely shushing at you. Why would I bother? Its easier and more fun to crack open the macbook in Manchester's Northern Quarter and fire up Google Reader. Also, I'm willing to bet that half of the so-called outraged protestors probably never set foot in a library anyway.
Sounds like I'm against libraries? What I'm against is something deeper. The closure of libraries represents change for the worse. I can remember as a young kid, being introduced to the book "Good Omens" which, as anyone who has read that book as a teenager will understand, is quite a magical moment. This got me thinking. What happended to that young boy who loved to peruse the shelves looking for nothing in particular?
The internet happened.
I read all my books on my iPhone. Before that, I used a treo (both colour and green screen versions). If I want a novel, I can have it in 5 seconds. I can get what I want, when I want it and I dont need to remember to take it back. Google is there for everything else. What need is there of dead tree format? Now I know you'll all be misty eyed about your hardbacks and your collectors edition of Dune (I have a stash of 'special' books held in a steel box) but its the words that are important. Chances are, its the technology you dont like, not that it makes your eyes hurt.
I'm a technology guy. It's my job and its what I love so I'm biased. The only reason a Computer Science student needed to go into the library at university was to check out the hot girls. Thats the only reason! In CS, things move so fast, the most up to date information is still online. Sure, there are 'classic texts' and I've bought a few but try getting that out of a library and you will be sorely disappointed.
We live in a world where scarcity in any form of media is becoming less and less of a problem, but, and this is a serious acknowledgement, only for these with means to access the net. I am one of these fortunates and it's easy to forget that in the age where more and more people have access to mobile phones yet are on the dole. Clearly the government believes this too and they don't care about these less fortunate.
We are living in a changing world and libraries need to change too. Oh sure, the British Library, Leeds Central Library, Manchester's John Rylands and all these need to stay and they will of course. But its the smaller libraries like the one I used to go into as a kid that will suffer. I'd never go in there now. I wouldn't be seen dead using any of their PCs or borrowing a DVD. What is the point? I've got so much to read already (and I read a lot!) I don't need to step into a library ever again. So what do they offer?
They offer space and curation.
Think about that for a second. Lets take space. People go into libraries to sit and read. I've still got my pass for the readers rooms at the British Library and as places to sit go, it's rather good. Its quiet and you can get work done for an hour or two. Sure, you need to secure your wifi but it's great that there are chairs and interwebs for free. Space can also be used for exhibitions and such which bring communities a little closer together. Perhaps libraries should get rid of all these dusty rotting leather things?
Curation is the second important point. We've all heard the stories of 'too much information' and ADHD and attention spans and similar. Curation allows us to reduce our information overload and, related to space, allows us to step away from the masses of information and reduce it down to a more managable level. If you go into a library on a whim, chances are you'll find something interesting that you didn't expect. In addition, you have a human face you can talk to which is generally, much nicer than Bing (not hard I know!).
So, is closing libraries really the issue? No. It's about how libraries need to change to meet the new era we are entering into. This argument opens up a whole can of worms though, digital rights management being the main one but if we leave such concerns aside for the moment, what would a new library look like? I, for one, would love to walk up to a magic glass wall, talk over some research with a librarian and as she waves her hands, some finely curated and relevant items appear along the glass that I can wander down and peer at. Sounds like an existing library doesn't it? Maybe the internet needs to come to the library in order to save it?
I think the sad thing is, we probably won't see it.
