Category Archives: Libraries

The Future of Bookshops (and Work)

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I forgot to say something. If you live around Oxford you simply must attend the Creation Theatre Company’s production of Doctor Faustus – amongst the books in Blackwell’s Bookshop (4 Feb-24 March). There’s also a panel discussion in the philosophy department on Feb 1. Bookshops and libraries (and maybe even pubs) take note – this is exactly the type of thing you should be doing.

Another thought. I mentioned the future of work event that I attended yesterday. As always the best bit was the Q&A. Two important points. First, before we talk about the future of work we should define what we mean by work. Why do we work? What’s work for? Clearly the answer isn’t simply “money.”  Personally I think that cutting jobs to save money is shortsighted because work has social benefits at both an individual and collective level. Therefore, you may save money in the short term but end up creating bigger and more expensive problems due to the long-term social harm unemployment creates.

The second thought was that it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of only thinking about a small slice of society when you discuss the future of work. Most people don’t work in the knowledge economy and very few read Fast Company, Wired magazine and the Harvard Business Review. Therefore, whilst discussions about fluid, networked corporations and digital nomads are true they are irrelevant for the person stacking the supermarket shelves, working on a production line or fixing the road. What does the future of work look like for these people?

Idea of the month

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What to do with thousands on unused red telephone boxes? One idea is to remove the coin-operated telephones and printed phone directories and put library books inside instead. A kind of mini-mobile library if you like. The idea obviously depends on trust (you take one and put one back) and is open to vandalism, but the cost of trying is so low why not give it a go?

Local library trends (by someone that was there – all day)

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I cannot not tell you, dear reader, what it is to be without a fixed internet connection for two months. Oh, and add two small children off school into the mix just for added fun.

Today I spent most of the day proof reading in the local library in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. It was interesting. Being close to the entrance I heard, more or less, what everyone said when they walked in. The most popular request, by far, was “Can I use a computer?”. Other questions included; “Do you have a fax?”, “Do you have a photocopier?” and (somewhat weird) “Can I borrow a stapler?”  Even better was “Do you know where I can find the nearest library?” (Answer: Yes, but you need to visit the local optician first). I also heard :”Do have have any newspapers?”, “Can you look after my kids for a minute while I pop over the road?” and “Do you sell blank paper?”

A few people took out some CDs. A few got a video and a few even managed to borrow some books (generally women with small kids or people aged 65+) but otherwise it seemed to be functioning as an offshoot of Staples Office supplies.  Actually the place was buzzing, although this might, in part, be due to the fact that the local post office had been moved inside the local Tesco.

Reminds me, slightly, of a cartoon in the Spectator (I think?) a while go:  Librarian to someone reading a newspaper – “Can you please not turn the pages so loudly, it’s disturning the people using the computers to play games!”

PS – An idea. UK post offices are rubbish. They have become benefit offices. They sell nothing (the one inside Tesco was quite put out when I asked if they sold envelopes – “No, we’re a post office”).  So why don’t local libraries sell all the things people used to get from the local post office – cards, writing paper, envelopes, pens, newspapers , computer suppies, magazines (books?) and so on. Just a thought.

Future of Public Libraries

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Remember the scenarios for public libraries in the year 2030? Well the pack of strategy wildcards that I mentioned a few weeks ago is now available online from the State Library for purchase. A snip at under $20. Link coming when I can work out how to use the new wordpress blog!!!

Strategic Wildcards

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As part of the Bookends scenario project looking at the environments public libraries might have to contend with in the year 2030, Oliver Freeman and myself have come up with a set of playing cards to help individual libraries test the resilience of their current strategy.What I especially love about these cards is that they deal with worlds that are made up of a combination of trends that can sometimes be contradictory.

Each player is dealt seven cards and must then collect one card from each of the seven different suits (ideas, nature, society, politics, economy, culture and technology). The order of play is based on rummy. Each player picks one car from the pack and throws one away. The first player to get a full set across all seven suits wins and the rest of the players then have to use this imaginary world to create an adaptive strategy. If anyone wants a set of cards they will be available from the State Library in due course.

Library Letters

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I’m sitting in the Virgin Atlantic lounge at Heathrow tucking into some scrambled eggs and a copy of The Week. On the letters page there’s an exchange between the director of community services at Lancashire County Council and a man from West Yorkshire. The letters originally appeared in The Guardian newspaper. I have edited both letters slightly for copyright reasons.

“ Libraries are not about borrowing books. They are not about housing books. They are one of the vehicles for local councils to deliver community cohesion, social inclusion, community engagement, and equality and diversity. Libraries are a place where you can access the internet. They are venues for homework clubs, mother and toddler groups, local councillors’ surgeries and benefit advice sessions. They work with schools to promote life skills, with HM Prison Service to promote literacy and numeracy and with social services to safeguard adults and children. Public libraries are local community centres that attract all ages and all sections of society.
If libraries didn’t exist we would have to invent them.”

The response:

“ My local library was the first Carnegie library to be built in England but it is now effectively unusable by anyone wanting to put it to its original purpose. Whole rows of bookshelves have disappeared to make room for computer terminals where bored teens surf away their days. Another space has been cleared to make space for infant schools. Large groups of excited children come in to talk loudly and fight over the very same books that they have back at their classrooms. Other areas are furnished with comfy sofas and coffee tables where people eat their lunch and make mobile phone calls. This what people like Mr X have invented. It might be a community centre but it’s not a library.”

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So here’s my question. Can you have a library without books? I think not. It would be called Starbucks.

Report on the Modernisation of Public Libraries

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On the way to Liverpool via Hong Kong (like you do) so I’ve had a chance to catch up with a bit of reading.

Here’s my take on the DCMS report on the modernisation of public libraries. First of all why does this report have to be such a celebration of the negative? Clearly there are problems but a document like this is not exactly going to attract future library professionals. Secondly, why do we need another ‘consultation document’? Surely enough is already known to allow for the creation of draft policy. And get to the point too. Eighty pages with colour photographs are unnecessary. Fire the designers and put what needs to be said on a single sheet of paper.

Overall, this is an uninspiring report. If what you’re after is a clear view on where things are heading, read the recent report by the Scottish National Library instead.Nevertheless, there are a handful of good ideas buried in the report. Here are 10 that caught my eye and could form the basis of future public library strategy.

1. The mission of public libraries is to inform and empower. The modernisation of libraries should be focussed on the promotion of reading and the celebration of physical books and local history. This is not to say that digital content is not important, but if public libraries focus too much on the digital they will end up fighting a losing battle with the likes of Google, Apple and Starbucks. And don’t make the mistake of getting rid of the librarians either. In a world of infinite content we need trusted information sources and trusted information sifters more, not less.

2. Put new libraries in the places that people go to nowadays — supermarkets, hospitals, job centres, leisure centres, post offices, schools, train stations etc.There should also be much more co-ordination with other community services. Every government department should have a presence in every local library.

3. A universal library card is a very good idea. When you are born you should get a library card and you should have to opt out of the system if you don’t want it.

4. There needs to be a national library database but I am unconvinced by the idea of allowing people to take a book out of one library and return it to another. The idea would be complex and expensive and would undermine the idea of building local libraries and local communities.

5. Stop trying to please all of the people all of the time. Young children and seniors are the key target markets for local public libraries. Secondary audiences might be kids wanting to do their homework, people wanting to interact with government services and people running their own businesses. As for teens forget them. They have already been lost, although they might come back when they get older.

6. There needs to be a new library act and a national library strategy but strategy should be adjusted at the local level to take into account local circumstances. For example, a small rural library is likely to be different to a large metropolitan library.

7. There’s a problem with library staffing but this might turn out to be temporary.Firstly we might see a bookshop diaspora and secondly there is an untapped army of senior citizens just waiting to be asked if they’d like to help out at the local library.

8. Take on board a few ideas from book retailers. Ensure that the book stock is rotated frequently or is freshened up by specific promotions (cookbook month, crime month and so on). As for libraries selling books this is a good idea but it alone won’t save the local library. Adding cafes is also a good idea but this alone won’t solve anything.

9. Do not make libraries loud. A key strength of libraries is their quietness. Allow conversation in some areas but remember that some people are trying to escape the frenetic pace of the modern era. In a similar vein remember that the more the world accelerates and becomes digitalised the more some people will want somewhere to go where they can feel a sense of physical connection to others.

10. The idea that there should be more integration with local schools and the national curriculum is a no brainer. Just do it.

Best quote in the report? Public libraries are :“one of the few remaining community facilities. Where else is there free and safe community access”?

Future of Libraries

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I’ve been ploughing through the DCMS report (UK) on public libraries. Talk about joined up gobbledegook. I’ve never seen so many “outcomes”, “deliverables” and “access” in my life. Actually that’s not quite true. I once got involved with a UK government report looking at creativity in education and the final report was similarly unreadable.

The process behind the report was similarly superficial too. Just ask a bunch of people whose egos will respond to being asked, add some sexy design and, hey presto, a report that looks great at first glance but has absolutely no substance whatsoever. Of course this isn’t actually a problem because it’s the “reaching out” — the consultation with “stakeholders” that really counts. Nobody will read the whole report anyway.

The Future of National Libraries

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Ellen at the State Library of NSW has sent me a link to a paper from the National Library of Scotland (NLS) that considers the influences that will shape the development of the NLS over the next 20 years. I really should be reading a modernisation review of public libraries from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (UK) sent to me by Andrew in England, but somehow this paper caught my eye. As a result I printed out all 85 pages and started reading it on a long train journey last night. Here’s my take on the report.

First of all it is important to note that this is a think piece is about national libraries, which is not wholly the same as either research libraries or public libraries although the overlap is considerable. It is also a linear futures thinking piece as opposed to a more multi-polar scenarios document.

First of all their key drivers of change:

1. Changing patterns of publishing
2. Shifting customer needs and behaviour
3. New competition
4. The political environment
5. Internal organisational issues

The paper looks at each of these drivers and considers likely impact. Interesting, both sustainability and digitalisation were considered as givens and it is made clear that the responsibility for digital literacy lies with the education sector not national libraries.

I partly agree with this last point and on balance I also agree that digitalisation should be a theme running throughout all the thinking. However, I also believe that they might be missing something. If you were to look at the future of national libraries from a scenarios perspective you would have one scenario where the thinking around sustainability and digitalisation is turned on its head. Anyway, here’s what they say (my words) about demographics (shifting customer needs), competition, government and internal issues.

Demographics

Declining number of younger users
Rising number of older people, especially very old people (e.g. number of over 75s in Scotland are expected to rise by 81% by 2031). This means that even by 2030 there will be significant numbers of digital immigrants around, many of whom will still prefer paper formats.
Booming interest in family history (partly, I assume, due to ageing and globalisation)
Greater diversity in terms of student types
Younger users seeing “little need or desire to visit the physical library” (I’ll come back to this point at the end).

Competition

Commercial information suppliers will continue to compete with NLS
Connectivity and digitalisation mean increased opportunities for collaboration. Likely mergers between institutions and organisations in the ‘cultural resources’ or ‘memory institutions’ space (i.e. libraries, art galleries, museums, film archives, sound archives etc). This will be driven largely by the digitalisation of materials, which will lead to an ever-greater integration of the content owing institutions themselves. I think this is a very important point. We will experience a blurring between what art galleries, museums and libraries do or represent and national libraries will shift from collecting books to collecting all kinds of items relating to cultural and intellectual heritage.

Government

We should assume that governments will continue to seek cost savings and this will force libraries to develop new income streams. This will also lead to the development of more paid-for services. This is unlikely to result in a total paradigm shift from free to fee but there will be a significant move towards payment for premium services. The rise of e-books and online information will also drive the trend towards hybrid charging models because of the easy availability of mobile and online micro- payments.

Internal organisational issues

A big issue is recruiting younger people into the profession, although it seems to me that the idea of professional librarianship will slowly fade away. The model of the future will be around information professionals and this will encompass a variety of skills ranging from IT and fundraising to management, marketing and even early years education and aged-care specialists.

Other points of interest

Libraries will shift from passive collators to active co-creators of information. Customers will demand more personalisation around ‘their’ information.There will be more do-it-yourself and self-service options. There will be greater automation due to the explosion of content national libraries can no longer collect everything — the shift will be towards selection or edited collections.

OK, so what has the paper missed?

First of all there seems to be little or no discussion of the physical space. Indeed, one author says: “:it becomes increasingly unlikely that users will ever visit the physical premises and they will increasingly have an expectation that services will be delivered directly to their devices wherever they are.” True. This will happen. But some people will still value the physical space in much the same way that some people will still value paper over pixels.

Another issue that is not really discussed relates to information trust. If there is an explosion of content one of the consequences is a declining level of quality. If people have shorter attention spans and information quality is declining them surely what some people will need is someone to talk to whom they trust. Technology can do this up to a point but I think people in combination with technology do it much better.
And this leads me onto my final point, which is that the authors are following the technology ahead of the psychology. Libraries are not just about books. They are also about people.

Read the whole paper yourself here:

http://www.nls.uk/about/policy/docs/future-national-libraries.pdf

The Future of Museums and Libraries

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Nice wiki about the future of museums and libraries. Here’s what they say…

A collaborative resource based on The Future of Museums and Libraries: A Discussion Guide, [http://www.imls.gov/pdf/DiscussionGuide.pdf] that is available and used by others across the museum and library fields to continue to stimulate discussion and share knowledge about planning, enhancing, enriching and sustaining the future of museums and libraries in the 21st century.
http://imlsupnext.wikispaces.com/

PS – Thanks Ellen!