Collection Development for My Random Life.

How do you build a public library in the age of Google? – By Witold Rybczynski – Slate Magazine

Interesting…  really goes for that “library as monument” feel and not necessarily in a good way. Kind of like the monuments of a fallen analog civilization. I personally don’t think libraries will go away. The internet has changed how we communicate with email but post offices haven’t disappeared. Photographs have moved into the digital medium and thus have become readily accessible both in their production and exchange, yet we still crave the experience of visiting a museum and being in the presence of actual “real” art.  Information is indeed ubiquitous, literature is a cultural cornerstone, and libraries provide tangible spaces where interaction with our cultural information can occur on a human face to face level. I think people will always crave that sort of real intimacy with culture. The monuments we construct are landmarks for culture and history. As such, a library will always remain a constant edifice from which people can physically interact with their own culture.

So my library finally got a coffee counter put in. Hooray!

But I wonder what the big fuss is since this is the expectation, is it not? Actually, I wonder why there is the connection between coffee and libraries to begin with? I don’t drink coffee, so I personally could care less about the addition. But I suspect I am in the minority in that case (or since I live in a Mormon influenced community am I not?). I personally would much rather see a bar in the library that served microbrews or a tea shop. I bet the argument goes that coffee and books intuitively go together. That is all well and good, but isn’t that our core audience to begin with?  Wouldn’t it be better if the library added something that reached more people than coffee-drinking book-readers who already go to the library?

Why not add a video game shop? A computer shop?  A Blockbuster rental? A sushi bar? Or go whole hog and add a McDonald’s for that matter? Can you imagine families coming to the library for storytime and happy meals? Or students coming to the library for lunch and to study? I noticed that McDonald’s has added movie rental vending machines, so they are at least thinking about how their products are potentially used. Dinner and a movie, right? How about food and a book? I don’t know, it might be better to flip that too, and have the library add movie rental vending machines. I am sure outsourcing the DVD collection to those machines might remove a giant headache for many libraries about what to do with popular movies.

In the case of my library adding coffee, it is more about keeping up with the Joneses. A majority of the buildings on campus already have a coffee counter or some sort of  food service, so our library is the last one on the block to get this valued added feature. I guess since the expectation of coffee + libraries has somewhat been normalized that libraries need to start thinking beyond coffee. What are the larger connections? Which audiences would benefit from library services?

One small area I sorely think could benefit from being housed in the library are campus writing or math labs. On many campuses, these labs reside in the departments  from which they originate but often their spaces are cramped and they don’t offer hours convenient to many students. I think finding space in the library for these campus services would bring many needy students into the sphere of the library. Doesn’t library research + writing/math assistance seem like a natural fit? What else can you imagine?

How about: Library + Tacos? Anyone… anyone?