Can you have a library without books? The question has been posed to me three times in the last two months, twice by students and once by a friend outside the workplace. One student saw us removing journals from the ranges and throwing them into the recycling bins. She cautiously approached me and asked if we could have a library without books?
Another student from one of our focus groups, upon hearing that we were weeding books and journals in order to create desperately needed space for the MUSC Library’s new Learning Commons, posed the same question: Are you able to have a library without books and journals?
The third time the question came as a total surprise, because there was nothing to prompt it. I was out eating dinner with some friends who are not from work, and, out of the blue, one of them asked me the following question: “Jeff, this may not be a good question to ask someone who makes his living in a library, but are we even going to continue having libraries? I mean, aren’t they just going to disappear and become a thing of the past now that everything is online?” In brief, I said, “No, libraries are not going to disappear, at least, not unless they refuse to change.”
The question of a library without books and journals is admittedly an alarming question, and, to be honest, I don’t remember exactly how I fielded the question on each occasion, but I think I said something like the following: Well, it’s important to understand that not all the books and journals will be disappearing. Some of them will definitely remain, but we’re just being carefully selective in terms of the ones we choose to keep. So, the familiar sight of them will still exist, but it just won’t be the focal point of the library as it once was.
Finally, I think I said something to the effect that part of the mission of our library’s new Learning Commons is, in fact, to preserve the library by helping to usher it into the twenty-first century. Our goal is very much to see the library flourish, but the reality is that the way patrons access information in today’s world has changed greatly, and, more importantly, is continuing to change in dramatic ways. The mission of the Learning Commons is to stay on the cutting edge and to help the library keep up with the change in terms of meeting the educational and information needs of our patrons – faculty, staff, and students – and thereby survive and flourish as a true hub of learning and information dissemination.
It is also reassuring to remember that we are not headed down this road alone. Many other libraries are beginning to step up and embrace the changes that are necessary. There are many good and thoughtful resources on the web that can serve as a beginning point for thinking about how libraries are now changing and evolving in today’s high-tech world. I would like to end this post by providing a link to an article about the dramatic changes one very progressive library is making in order to meet the needs of its students.
Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books. Cushing Academy embraces a digital future.
And one more link on the subject for the really curious:
The future of libraries, with or without books
