Libraries don't need love
Coinciding with my speech about children's right to culture is an ad campaign currently running outdoors in Stockholm entitled "Libraries need love". They've even coined a new phrase, "Library lovers", with its own website outlining the need for a national policy for libraries. I agree that a policy is needed but it should not be based on "love" but rather on rational insight and ideas for a reinvention of the library model that can carry it into the 21st century.
Libraries, like whales, somehow evoke emotional reactions beyond the ordinary. When I told my office colleague about my speech and my thoughts about libraries being outdated, his reaction was as vehement as it was immediate. He went on and on about how his son's daycare center use the library and how borrowing books was superior for many people and so on. Let me be clear; the benefits of the library are many and should not be ignored. On the contrary, I believe they can be strengthened in the coming decades. But the ideas of the "Library lover" campaign are old-fashioned, inefficient and misdirected. Take their idea of a touring book bus, for instance. This is preposterous! Most people agree that kids need access to computers these days but that doesn't mean we should start hawking a busload of laptops around Sweden's smaller towns and villages. (I can only imagine that Library Lovers intend for the bus to be a diesel hybrid).
The benefits of the library, from what I've understood when reading the campaign, talking to heavy-users and surfed the blogs are:
- A free, accessible, democratic "being space" uncluttered by commercial interests
- A large range or books that are free to browse or borrow
- A searchable and readily available information database
Freemium
The basic idea is to let some parts be free and others cost money - like Flickr and Flickr Pro. This was something that struck me when me and my wife stayed in the (state) hospital when having our babies a couple of months ago ago. Why don't they let us choose certain things and pay a premium for them? Like massages, breakfast menus, designer baby clothes and so on. Right now, the hospital offers a "one size fits all"-model meaning that affluent couples like us don't get a chance to pour extra money into the system that could benefit others. Libraries could function the same way. Many companies and free agents crave a silent being space or conference rooms and would gladly pay for the service.
Advertising
This will never fly with Sweden's left-wing intelligensia since they think that advertising only entails silly diaper ads. But what if every library could have an advertising or commercial interests curator who oversaw collaborative projects with commercial interests. He or she would make sure any commercial endeavors would fit the library's vision and taste and also make sure that advertiser's stayed in a certain place. There's already a myriad of advertising messages at any library entrance but they tend to be poorly created flyers for amateur theatre. Why not compliment them with professional commercial messages in good taste that would enable libraries to keep on offering their services for free?
Labor exchange
Libraries are often full of dilligent research-prone people. Why not enable them to earn an extra buck? I have often been frustrated with the poor search functions on library websites so what if I could crowdsource research help and pay an auction-set price for the effort. Students and pensioners would be able to earn pocket money by running research errands in their library in between studies or newspaper reading.
Zero marginal cost
The book is a cumbersome and often expensive piece of dead tree. The megabyte is clean and free of charge. Most libraries I've visited offer a handful of (often really bad) computers and tons of books. That libraries don't embrace the many economic benefits of the net, from free access, WiFi and print-on-demand solutions, feels North Korean to me. A book bus? Get real. I would imagine that the people who came up with this idea would most likely argue for the installation of a phone booth in order to give kids in remote areas access to a telephone.
My guess is that few of these ideas sound particularly attractive to politicians since the mere mention of monetary transfer in a library context offends their (often old-fashioned) idea of what a library is. Their solutions thus become expensive and ineffective, like rebuilding public libraries with celebrity architects wasting a few million in tax dollars in the process. The new building may be pretty to look at but hardly generates new energy to a stale model. Libraries don't need love or nostalgia, they need new reasons for being.
Comments
I like your writing here. I think "Library Lovers" and hearts on the van is a ridiculous advertisement. I had to chuckle because a man who worked at the Library of Congress was always taking prostitutes into the stacks. He was a library lover.
I adore fingering pages, their feel and texture, but also do a ton of reading online. The internet has really democritized education. I can look up anything and be better informed. Anytime I forget a piece of knowledge, I can re-learn it.
Paid researchers. What a good idea. Better computers are a good idea too. I mourn the passing of the book, but think that is the way of the future. Just like the lp went out, with its good old crackle, the book will be obsolete.
Lucy