Another blog I subscribe to is SmartMobs which is spun off of Harold Rheingold’s book of the same name. The blog deals with the wisdom of the crowd, collective intelligence, the long tail, etc. I have a research interest in the association of the metaphor of crowds with that of the library. Awhile back, I presented a paper on this topic at the Georgia Library Association conference in 2005 and it was in researching this paper that I came across Rheingold’s book. Much of what I was interested in concerned the “crowd” of information and access points patrons face when encountering a library. The idea of the Smart Mob is more about the positive outcomes associated with collective decision making. I find the Smart Mob website really interesting, insightful, and above all applicable to libraries. They champion a lot of things including how technology joins people, the idea of co-working, etc. Recently, many libraries have embraced the web-tool Twitter, well the Smart Mobs website has been reporting on this tool for a long time, noting how it acts as a great communication tool for groups.
A recent post on Smart Mobs caught my eye about turning cars into wireless computer nodes. Apparently some engineers at UCLA are working to make this happen. The first step is a plan to make emergency vehicles such as police cars, ambulances, and the like into mobile networks. This idea would not only provide a great service to communities but make people that may need an immediate network connection, such as an emergency worker, deliver better service.
It would be great if libraries would do similar things like this. What if our bookmobiles could also be wireless hot-spots (or are some already?)?. Maybe have a librarian act as a “hot-spot” for database access (or even internet access) in diverse parts of the community. I am planning a campus outreach effort tentatively called Librarian@Lunch. The program will have a librarian bring a laptop to the student union during the busy lunch hour and try to drum up business and goodwill for the library. The hope is that because many students do their homework during their free-time at lunch, a librarian might be a helpful resource. It would be great if there was a place on campus or in a community that did not have wireless and the library could bring that service to them along with the library’s resources. A small example of something similar:
The Cuyahoga County Public Library – Berea extends their wireless
service to the library “campus” so patrons can be connected lakeside
with their laptops. — Editorial: Francine Fialkoff Library Journal: June 1st, 2007 – p. 8
I wonder if in the grand thinking about information access that libraries might better acknowledge their primary role as internet access points within their given community and just take that idea to its natural end. My observation is that the library serves as the sole internet access point for patrons who do not have internet access or cannot afford computers. Why not expand this critical role we serve to the community at large and actually provide internet access (wireless or otherwise) to the campuses or local area beyond the library’s walls? I keep hearing that libraries are about access, access, and access, so why don’t we actually step up to the plate and provide actual access. It has been obvious for a long time now that libraries are no longer just about books. In thinking about books… books are as much a piece of “hardware” (covers, binding, shelving, etc.) as “software” (content). Obviously libraries are not publishers, but they still have had to develop the infrastruction both physical and organizational to locate and access these materials. Perhaps libraries need to start investing the physical infrastructure to bring the internet (and with it online library resources) to the communities we serve. In this sense the internet becomes the “stacks” the contents rests on.
I can imagine the counter-argument to be that it is not the library’s job to be an internet service provider. But I am pretty sure the library was never envisioned as a place where the majority of our ”customers” only set foot in the library to send email or use word processing (and not check out books). Those acts are more hardware based than content based. Computers (and coffee) seem, in many cases, to be viewed as only the carrots to get patrons through the door, which I think does a disservice to their actual role in the information exchange process. Why not embrace information access in its totality and have the library become the actual network for the communities we serve? I already pay almost $500 a year for internet service ($40 a month for cable internet). I would rather pay that money to a library if I could, because I am sure I would get more for my money (reference librarians, content, etc.). I think if it were possible for libraries to provide wireless services to their communities it would redefine the concept of access and provide new meaning to actually searching “the library” for information.
So is all this a pipe dream? A possible future of libraries? Or simply throwing technology and money at a perceived problem?
Tags:
access,
collective wisdom,
crowds,
smart mobs,
wireless