Reading #3

Reading #3
“The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation”
Thomas Frey
http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120

Beginning with the turbulent story of how DaVinci’s works have come down to us through time, Frey gives credit to libraries for preserving as much as they did. He then goes on to tell how the book evolved from a precious asset to be guarded to something that was widely available with the advent of Gutenberg’s printing press in 1455. Finally he marks the time between 1883 and 1929 as “the turning point” in the development of libraries we see today. However those libraries and what they stand for are beginning to change in definition as information is made more ready on the internet to those who seek it. To expand on this Frey lists ten trends that are “affecting the development of the next generation of library”. The first trend has to do with communication and the way people get their information. In this point he states that all technology has a life span and that with the birth of the internet (along with search engines like Google) perhaps books and writing have reached their end. This leads into his second point that with the end of one technology (in this case the book) the beginning of a second arises. In essence this is a cycle without end. Third Frey suggests that it is only a matter (pun intended) of time until we discovery the smallest particle in which we can store information in. Finding said particle is important because it will literally shape the libraries of the future and how people interact with it. His fourth trend is that with the increasing complexity of technology, the role of the librarian in helping people to find what they need will also increase in importance. Fifth he writes that as people become busier their needs will change, and the libraries of tomorrow will have to change along with them. For instance keyboards will become obsolete as they take too long to use. Next is the trend that we will become a verbal society with computers that have human characteristics. The seventh trend he writes of is a growing need to know about the rest of the world and its other cultures. We will need this information, he claims, in order to be apart of the international community. Hand-in-hand with this is the concept that we will become a homogeneous world; with laws and customs that stretch across the board. His ninth point is that we are switching from a “product-based economy” to one that is founded on experience. In other words the new economy will be founded on feedback from its patrons. Finally Frey states that libraries will change from places of information to places of culture. These new libraries will monitor the needs of the community and address them accordingly. He closes with the thought that libraries and their services are changing even now towards the above end. In the spirit of this change he gives a list of recommendations aimed at libraries so that they will be able to do what is best for them. Among these suggestion are that they “embrace new technologies” and play around with physically arranging the library to meet the new needs of the community (i.e. pod casting rooms, blogging stations, etc).

As I am a student of history I found that the beginning of this article very interesting. However I found that my attention waning as the article went on. It is not that I was disinterested, just that it seemed that much of what Frey wrote of has already taken place; or at the least is well on its way to that end. While I cannot say for sure when this article was written, it seem to be fairly recent; at least within the past half decade. As such it seems that much of this article need not have been written. Also it gives not real concrete hint as to what physical manifestation this library of tomorrow will take (not even an Orson Scott Card shot in the dark), and that lack of speculation is frustrating. Or perhaps he did venture a guess and I missed it? Either way it was a good article for the most part even if it did reiterate concepts that are somewhat commonplace.