Seeing the rise of I wonder what the future might be for libraries. And not just public libraries, but the museum libraries, like Thomas Jefferson's Library at the Library of Congress.
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| Thomas Jefferson's library, Library of Congress |
And what about places like Jefferson's Library? Will someone from the early 21st century have a recreation of their library somewhere one day? And will it be half books with the other half being e-books displayed on fake iPads or another type of e-reader?
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| George Memorial Library, Richmond, TX |
It's strange to think about how far its come and how quickly it's changing now. There was a day when I would go up to the library to search for something on the Internet because the computer at our house was still using dial-up on our phone line. And now, almost everyone has a laptop and a cell phone and Apple seems to rule the world. And the future might be moving too fast for libraries to keep pace. They might be left in the dust with a huge building no longer needing to be used.
I have great memories from my local library, especially from when I was younger, so I hope libraries never get to that point. I would love to see physical, paper books there always.
Great post! One of the things that Dave Kuhn said (in the publishing interview) was that libraries will act as the safety deposit box for books. In the future, they will be one of the few places where print books still do exist in excess. I think that this may be the case, but there will be a lot less of these large collections and libraries. Another good point he made is that libraries can still offer internet resources not available with normal wi-fi. I know at the TCU library I can get on JSTOR and other internet databases to do research. I think this goes along with what you were saying about using the library to get on the internet. I think this is still the case for some people- that they need to go somewhere to use a computer or internet. I also wonder if libraries will follow bookstores in a way that they develop a more social aspect to them to keep alive. Libraries already act as a community center and I think if this is promoted and increased libraries will stay around for longer.
ReplyDeleteI think the social aspect of libraries is something that needs to really be shown more. I'll admit that I don't always think of "social hour" when I think about my local library now, but it can be that. Having the library-specific search engines and research services helps get people into the library, but with the technology increasing, having a monopoly on that service seems to be starting to diminishing. That being said, I think there are ways for libraries to stay around longer than they might otherwise by really showing people everything they're worth and doing what you said, McKenzie, espcially from the social perspective.
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