The next few years will be monumental for public libraries. In a world where the old Dewey Decimal System has been replaced by Google, the future of libraries is certain to change. But what are the options? And do libraries have a future?
The Independent reports that British culture minister Culture Minister Margaret Hodge has a plan where library-goers would have the right to order any book, including out-of-print editions, and free access to e-books. The Guardian reports of plans to turn them into coffee shops and set up systems where library users are given loyalty cards that will reward them with a pair of cinema tickets for every 10 visits.
Perhaps libraries can be set up as places where people can meet to swap ideas and develop plans. Perhaps they might run blogs for book groups and other community organisations.
Writing in Forbes, the CEO of web publisher Dulcinea Media Mark Moran says kids go soft if they just rely on Google. They need libraries to contextualize what they pick up off the web.
Moran writes: "Students do not know how to find or evaluate the information they need on the Internet. In a recent study of fifth grade students in the Netherlands, most never questioned the credibility of a Web site, even though they had just completed a course on information literacy. When my company asked 300 school students how they searched, nearly half answered: 'I type a question.' When we asked how students knew if a site was credible, the most common answers were 'if it sounds good' or 'if it has the information I need.' Equally dismal was their widespread failure to check a source's date, author or citations.
This is more than just homework. This is about how people learn to create and communicate.
Or as Seth Godin puts it in his blog, libraries should start training people to take intellectual initiative. "The information is free now. No need to pool tax money to buy reference books. What we need to spend the money on are leaders, sherpas and teachers who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and leading others."
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