[Web4lib] At Session on the Future of Libraries, a Sense of Urgency

[B.G. Sloan]

There's a report in LJ on an ALA panel discussion on the future of libraries:

"At Session on the Future of Libraries, a Sense of Urgency"
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6574501.html 

I sure hope that this "Session on the Future of Libraries" panel discussion at ALA was more interesting than the LJ report makes it out to be. Maybe something was lost in the translation. Maybe someone who attended the discussion will set me straight?

It sure sounds to me like library consultants rehashing the same old "change or die" spiel that has been a centerpiece at many library conferences and gatherings over the past 10-15 years.

The report notes that Steven Abram "called it 'appalling' that he can use a credit card anywhere but needs multiple library cards for nearby libraries." Has he not heard of reciprocal borrowing? Sure, reciprocal borrowing should definitely become more widespread, but people in quite a few areas have been able to use one library card in nearby libraries for more than twenty years. 

The report also says "Abram, asked how collective organization could coexist with locally funded libraries, suggested that, at the least, libraries could collaborate on their infrastructure, noting that library servers went down after flooding in the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest. 'There are better ways to architect this stuff,' he said. 'We have enough staff if we organize ourselves better.'" Has he not heard of library automation cooperatives?

And I don't get the section of the LJ report where Abram seems to be equating library professionalism with the folks at Wal-Mart who don't have any qualms about wearing name tags? So library staff name tags are the key to the successful library of the future?

Then LJ reports the following from panelist Jose-Marie Griffiths: "While 'we cannot lose that notion of collection,' she said of libraries’ traditional role, 'no longer has it to be physically resident in one location.'" No longer?? To me the "collection" hasn't been physically resident in ONE LOCATION for at least twenty years.

And panelist Joan Frye Williams is quoted as saying that libraries should be “more and more a place to do stuff, not just to find stuff. We need to stop being a grocery store and being a kitchen.” Hasn't that been the case for some time now?

Well, like I said earlier, hopefully something was lost in the translation and someone who was there at the discussion can set me straight. :-)

Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates