My thoughts on "the Future of Libraries"

In the online version of our 511 class, Professor Lankes posted a video of Eli Neiburger giving a virtual presentation at the 2010 Library Journal/School Library Journal Online Summit and asked our class to respond to the presentation. At the Summit, Neiburger, the Associate Director for IT and Production at the Ann Arbor District Library, presented his e-lecture entitled “Libraries at the Tipping Point: How eBooks Impact Libraries.” In the video, Neiburger quite bluntly states that “libraries are screwed” unless they drastically change the way they operate. Similar to Professor Lankes, Neiburger believes that if libraries continue to associate themselves with the objects they contain (their collections) then the new “download everything from home for free or for cheap” way the world is going will make libraries become outmoded.

Books, Neiburger claims, could potentially go the way candles and LPs have gone: those items have not disappeared, but their primary purpose has shifted as technology has evolved. Rather than allowing libraries to become outmoded and perhaps ultimately obsolete, Neiburger suggests that libraries return to their roots of recording the materials of the local population. He suggests that libraries change their “circulating collections” focus to that of “member-created content.” Neiburger believes that the future of libraries lies in becoming centers for member-created content of our local communities. In essence, the community would come to the library not to receive information but to create their own information. The community would become the “writers/artists” and the library would become the “publishers” of their work and store the work of the local community to be shared with others.

I like the idea of user-created content in the library, and I’m glad that Neiburger is trying to find a new way to define the library’s role in this ever-changing world. Yet, I have to admit, he seems to be missing one crucial point: libraries are already centers of member-created content, which is why they mean more to people than just “that place where you can get books.” Libraries have existed as community centers for collaboration and creation for years. They do store the history of the community in their archives and they do facilitate creation in their communities through the information they distribute (whether that be through physical materials, through the Internet they provide, or through workshops and informational events). Libraries do much, much more for their communities than simply circulate materials.

At the end of his presentation, Neiburger argues that libraries “need to become a platform for unique experiences and unique content” if they want to remain relevant in today’s world. In my opinion, libraries already offer unique experiences, but meager budgets have hindered them in marketing those experiences in the most effective ways. As librarians, it is our job to keep the public interested in our services. If we continue to serve the needs of our community, however those needs might change through the years, then libraries will never become outmoded.