Reinventing Libraries

According to the 2010/11 Taking Part survey published by the Dept of Culture, Media & Sport the proportion of adults in the UK who visited a public library in the past year fell from 48.2% in 2005/6 to just 39.4% in 2009/10. At that rate of decline in less than two decades nobody will be visiting libaries.

This upsets me. I remember weekly childhood visits to my local library, gathering up another small pile of books to take home. Those visits were full of anticipation. I can remember the almost overwhelming sense of wonder when I first walked into the Library at the sheer number and diversity of books in one place. But in the face of our modern day almost universal access to knowledge and information through digital means, libraries are slowly becoming irrelevant.

In response to Kodak filing for bankruptcy protection, I saw a tweet that opined that the company's long-term decline had come as a result of misunderstanding their core business: "They were in the memories business not the film business". In his Observer column on the subject, John Naughton paraphrased Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma, saying that whilst big companies are often good at fostering 'sustaining' innovations (the type that enhance their positions in established markets) they are (perhaps inevitably) much less adept at dealing with innovations that completely disrupt markets. To me, libraries have a Kodak problem - they are shackled to a legacy medium and model (books and lending) from which (despite efforts to diversify) they seem unable to escape.

And yet I believe there is an extremely useful long-term role that libraries could still play in local communities. The first thought most of us have when we think about libraries is that they are places to go to to borrow books. Yet if I think back to those visits to my local library the thing I was really excited about was the opportunity to connect to amazing stories and how those stories made me feel. Borrowing books was merely the means by which this happened.

The art of storytelling is one of the greatest of human attributes. So what if community libraries became places that were dedicated to that art? Places where people could connect and interact with stories in a hundred different ways. Story centres, if you like. Places that were about inspiration and firing the imagination. Places that were equipped not only with books, eBooks, and DVDs that you might borrow, but with the tools for digital creation and the means to inspire and enable people to create stories of their own. Places that were not just about quiet, passive appreciation but active, noisy, exciting learning. Places that might connect the young to the great stories inherent in film, literature, and history in meaningful and relevant ways. Places that involve people with the stories of their local area and the people who can tell them, and maybe even lived through them. Places where people could go to celebrate great storytellers and hear them speak. Authors, film-makers, game-makers, artists, animators, illustrators. Or to be a part of a massive but very tangible story-telling network spread out around the world.

There are plenty of reasons why this might be a good idea. Some have said that storytelling is dying art, and yet the diversity and depth of the tools we have at our disposal to create stories has never been richer. The creative industries in the UK employ around 1.5 million people and their contribution to the economy is growing. Think of the ground-up innovation this could galvanise. Think of all the stories that could be brought to life that would otherwise be forgotten. Think of all that might come from people inspired not just by reading, but by doing and making. But this is also about reconnecting people to their local communities. How great it could be. Re-invigorating a national infrastructure that has enormous potential to bring even more value to millions of people. Capitalising on the amazing things that can happen when you bring people and technology together and add a dash of inspiration.

So that's what I'd do. Turn every library into a story centre. I don't think we should accept a slow gradual decline for our libraries into irrelevance. I have some sympathy for the long-suffering librarian attempting to deal with increasing expectation and dwindling resource. But instead of disenfranchising them, we should empower them. There are no doubt plenty of reasons one can think of for not doing this. But I think there's one very compelling reason for believing that there needs to be radical change - in less than a generation community libraries may well not exist.

HT to Diemkay for the DCMS link

Image courtesy

Comments

[Andreana Drencheva]

Neil,

Great stuff.

I recently read about the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, USA and the fact that they opened a hackerspace. The library director said in an interview for NPR:
“We see the library as not being in the book business, but being in the learning business and the exploration business and the expand-your-mind business. We feel this is really in that spirit, that we provide a resource to the community that individuals would not be able to have access to on their own.”

I think this quote is brilliant and really draws the attention not to libraries as a place to check out books but as a place (online or offline) to expand your mind.
More on it here: http://andreanadrencheva.com/2011/12/on-business-mission-statements-and-libraries/

[neilperkin]

Thanks Andreana. That sounds interesting - I'll take a look

[Dan Thornton]

Way ahead of you, as I posted last year: http://thewayoftheweb.net/2010/09/is-the-ebook-the-end-of-the-library/ - Libraries need to become hubs for learning, rather than for simply storing information.

Whether that's storytelling, using the internet, coping with information and taxonomies, or becoming the base and hub for hyperlocal projects.

The challenge is how you convince the change to happen before the point they're all closed due to lack of demand, without actually utilising them for new needs in an age where lending isn't needed because so much information and content is available legally for free, or at low cost..

[Gary Green]

I like the idea of libraries as a medium for stories in the way you've described. So much opportunity using both traditional and modern techniques. However, to make this a reality you need the funding and, as we are seeing in the UK at the moment, one of the reasons why libraries are in decline and many are on the cards for closure or reduced services is because services aren't being invested in. This includes reductions in book and stock funds and shortening of opening hours - you've got better chance of increasing use/visits if you can provide up-to-date stock in a place you can access for a reasonable amount of time.

It's also worth noting that less visits doesn't always equate to less use of the service. You also need to take into account services that are now provided online by libraries that may have impacted on visits. For example: online joining, book reservations, Enquire, reference services, e-books. Figures for these online visits is increasing, but owhen it comes down to it they often tie in with the physical visits too... Either by piggybacking on them or leading to further physical visits to the library.

As well as the storytelling aspect, libraries offer so much more to communities. The Voices for the Library http://voicesforthelibrary.org.uk site gives plenty of examples of why libraries are important (Particularly the 'Why public libraries?' page and the user stories).

I think it's also worth remembering that part of the reason why public libraries came about was to provide users who could not afford it, access to free information etc. This is still a valid reason today - even though it seems as if everyone has access to the internet, e-books etc, it isn't the case. There is still a divide and as long as that divide exists libraries also need to focus on this aspect too.

[Graham MacFadyen, British Library]

I totally agree, Neil. We're thinking very much along these lines about how we can provide the tools (and a conducive environment) for curators to inspire and enthuse people with their passion for a subject - creating the campfire atmosphere Aleks Krotoski talks about... http://bit.ly/yoPz3e

[neilperkin]

Hi Graham. Thanks for stopping by. That's nicely put so thanks for the link

[gemma]

I love (and have previously blogged about) my local central Library.

But I got a bit of a wake up call the other day when the nice helpdesk lady who was setting me up on a PC to trawl the archives told me that leaving my handbag by my feet as I worked would inevitably result in it being nicked.

It's not just about contents, service or role - libraries need to be safe, welcoming places too.

[Annemarie Naylor]

Precisely what we were thinking re @ckhlibraries and @cktransfer - see http://www.communityknowledgehub.org.uk/ and http://www.communityknowledgetransfer.org.uk/ - would welcome your feedback!

[Headhunters IT Singapore]

This is sadly true but the internet which we all love so much is to blame. I occasionally visit the library and its surprisingly nice and a good place to focus... Since I'm in recruiting maybe I need to look into sells men for libraries.