I recently was looking for something light to read regarding libraries and library services. Something related to my course, Introduction to Teacher Librarianship, but that wasn’t a heavy-handed journal article. I wanted something engaging and approachable, something that may introduce me to a new idea or concept or that would still make me think but without having to enter “study mode”. I stumbled across an article by the MIT (prestigious!) Technology Review, titled “The Death of Libraries?” that grabbed my attention.

 

Immediately I checked the publication date, hoping that this wasn’t a recent article. The death of libraries, oh no! Am I entering a “dying profession”? I’ve heard this term being thrown out there once or twice before.

Thankfully it was published 14 years ago. Phew, libraries have survived!

 

So, with a healthy dose of scepticism I continued to read what MIT had to say. Basically, the article was written when digital resources and the digitising of print resources was beginning to develop. It was calling into question libraries as places that would become dispensable in the face of emerging technologies and downloads of digitised collections. Google’s agreement to scan and make available millions of books from a number of major libraries in the early 2000’s seemed to indicate that a trip to a library could become obsolete and the cultural and practical importance and significance of libraries themselves may disappear. The implication at the time of publication was that the death of libraries seemed to be a real threat.

 

Well this may have been the feeling at the time, I thought, but things have obviously not worked out that way; and libraries are very different today than they were then. In fact, libraries are more vibrant and evolving places than ever before. This must be true, I’ve seen it with my own eyes! So, I went searching for proof and came across a few more recent articles that discussed how libraries are incorporating new and interesting services. I landed on The Conversation – “an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public.” They provide “access to independent, high-quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism” which abides by a Community Standards policy. Authors “write on a subject on which they have proven expertise” and any “funding and potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed” – I felt fairly comfortable that what I was going to encounter was coming from a reputable source.

 

What I found was a number of articles that describe how libraries have reconfigured themselves in the modern era. Services such as makerspaces; individual and collaborative study spaces; comfortable reading areas; teaching and presentation rooms; lecture spaces; social spaces for playing video games; areas for completing assignments or getting homework assistance; musical performances; digital literacy training; coding and robotics spaces; areas for listening, viewing and producing audio-visual media; Wi-Fi hot-spotting; unique collections, galleries and curated material are all examples of how dynamic libraries can be today.

 

Albeit, most of the material I looked at was in regards to public libraries and not school libraries specifically, however, I think the point is still the same regardless of the type of library being discussed – and that is, that yes, libraries are evolving to meet the needs of modern users in vibrant and exciting ways; yes, libraries are still socially, academically and culturally important places; and no, the death of libraries is certainly not imminent.

 

For a more on this topic check out these:

 

 

References

 

Gascó-Hernández, M. (2019, April 1). 7 unexpected things that libraries offer besides books. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/7-unexpected-things-that-libraries-offer-besides-books-111895

 

Wyatt, D., & Leorke, L. (2018, August 20). Technology hasn’t killed public libraries – it’s inspired them to transform and stay relevant. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/technology-hasnt-killed-public-libraries-its-inspired-them-to-transform-and-stay-relevant-100900