After a decade in the profession, I’ve read, written, attended sessions, and talked with countless people about the irascible nebulous topic, “the future of libraries”. Recently, in giving the subject another go through the old noggin, I’ve reached a personal insight: that the approach to this topic has been grossly mishandled.
How? So very much of this discussion is wrapped up in things rather than ideas.
Why is this a problem? Things (items, services, programs) don’t translate well across the libraryland spectrum. What fits a school library may not fly at a college library. One public library’s offering may be wholly inappropriate for another one, even if it’s similarly situated. It gives rise to the oft repeated refrain “that won’t work at my library” in its most meaningful form: that it is a bad fit. And sometimes (shockingly) it’s not a person just being lazy but being a thoughtful advocate for their users.
So what does translate across the libraryland spectrum? Ideals and ideas do.
I’m going to make a leap here and presume that you, the patient reader, got into librarianship because of the ideals expressed by profession. Not because of makerspaces or a love of reading or the idea of being faculty or a love of old things, although that certainly could have influenced your decisions. But it was a pairing of the type of person that you are and how it matches up with the profession’s core values. No one starts their journey towards the profession by waking up one morning and saying, “God, what I really want to do with the rest of my life is explain the internet to old people. I don’t actually care about educating them or fostering their curiosity, I just like telling seniors to CLICK HERE PLEASE.”
I don’t think so. God, I hope not.
So where does this lead us? What is a better approach?
To me, it boils down to two fundamental questions:
What won’t change in ten years?
What will our ideals and ideas change in the library moving forward?
A version of the first question is one that Jeff Bezos asks his execs at Amazon. It’s a really good question as it emphasizes enduring values (in their case, low prices and good customer service). These are things that can be worked on and refined and pursued in the next decade. (To paraphase Bezos, “no one will come to me in ten years and say how they wished they paid more and got lousy service”.)
What doesn’t change in libraries in ten years? Our dedication to information access. A commitment to literacy in its many forms for those in our sphere of influence. Working in service to reach the whole community, not just the people who show up. How we care about the people who seek our help, even when they drive us to drink.
It doesn’t matter what kind of library you work with or community since these are bedrock values that work across the spectrum. It is the implementation of them that changes from place to place, situation to situation, but they hold true in their core.
Which leads us to the tricky second question: so what will the next item, service, or space? I don’t care to guess, but I would offer a predictive equation. The greatest future successes and innovations in the field will come when our professional ideals align closely with the needs of the communities we serve. The resulting implemented services, materials, and programs will push the boundaries of what it means to be a library in the modern age. Makerspaces, staff social workers, flipped classrooms, and academic open access are few examples I would offer when such alignments generate outcomes that move libraries forward.
Personally, I feel this is the tip of the iceberg for possible outcomes. The future is going to be bolder, grander, and stranger than what we can imagine today. The profession stands at the beginning of a new age, unyoked from the past burdens that held us as gatekeepers. It is a future that is both analog and digital, centered around the people who find us and how we apply our ideals and ideas to make their lives better.
I’m looking forward to seeing it.
