Public libraries will avoid being relegated to the scrap heap of history in a digital age as long as they continue to serve as platforms for learning, creativity, and innovation that strengthen their communities.
That’s the conclusion of a new report “Rising to the Challenge: Re-envisioning Public Libraries,” which the Aspen Institute has produced in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
There are nearly 9,000 public library systems and 17,000 branches and outlets across the U.S. Nearly seven in 10 Americans say they have at least “medium” levels of engagement with their public libraries. And nearly a quarter of U.S. adults use their local libraries for Internet access.
“The public library is a key partner in sustaining the educational, economic and civic health of the community during a time of dramatic change, [and] there is already a significant physical presence and infrastructure to leverage for long-term success,” the report states.
As important, the library "is a core civil society institution, democracy’s 'maker space,'" the report asserts.
But as public libraries shift from being repositories for materials to platforms for learning and participation, their ability to provide access to vast amounts of content in all formats will be vital. “Libraries face two immediate major challenges in providing access to content in all forms,” the report says. “Being able to procure and share e-books and other digital content on the same basis as physical versions, and having affordable, universal broadband technologies that deliver and help create content.”
A 21st-century library will remain relevant only if it is built on three key assets: people, place, and platform. The report observes that libraries are “shifting from building collections to building human capital, relationships, and knowledge networks in the community.”
While a library is both a physical and virtual place, the report believes its physical presence “anchors it most firmly in the community.” But the library as a learning center is also becoming more of a destination, “a way station on the learning journey.” In that capacity the library in a digital age should also be “a virtual space accessible from anywhere 24/7.”
A library’s goal, says the report, should be to enable individuals and communities “to create their own learning and knowledge.” So a library “platform” needs to be adaptable to the individual’s needs. “The library as platform radically reshapes [its] daily activities, shifting away from the old model of organizing and ‘lending’ the world’s knowledge toward a new vision of the library as a central hub for learning and community connections.”
To be successful in a digital age, libraries, says the report, will require a different kind of access and distribution infrastructure, more sophisticated analytics “that will enable the library itself to become a “learning organization,” and the ability to scale themselves to facilitate innovation and competition.
The report recommends four strategic opportunities for action to guide libraries’ transformation: aligning their service to support community goals, providing access to content in all formats, ensuring the long-term sustainability of public libraries through greater attention to potential financial resources, and cultivating “leadership.”
But library professionals face several leadership challenges, such as taking advantage of digital tools; building the library’s capacity, which might benefit from exploring best practices outside the U.S.; thinking harder about succession planning; including trustee and “friend” groups in leadership development activities; and developing strategies that can keep pace with larger disruptive changes.
Libraries and their communities must also be watchful, and be prepared to respond to, several important developments and trends, including new technologies and their impact on a global information economy, online education, the boundaries of privacy and data protection, and “hyperconnected” societies.
Related Stories
| May 17, 2011
Gilbane partners with Steel Orca on ultra-green data center
Gilbane, along with Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, has been selected to partner with Steel Orca to design and build a 300,000-sf data center in Bucks County, Pa., that will be powered entirely through renewable energy sources--gas, solar, fuel cells, wind and geo-thermal. Completion is scheduled for 2013.
| May 17, 2011
Should Washington, D.C., allow taller buildings?
Suggestions are being made that Washington revise its restrictions on building heights. Architect Roger Lewis, who raised the topic in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, argues for a modest relaxation of the height limits, and thinks that concerns about ruining the city’s aesthetics are unfounded.
| May 17, 2011
The New Orleans master plan
At an afternoon panel during last week's AIA National Conference in New Orleans, Goody Clancy Principal David Dixon and Manning Principal W. Raymond Manning shared their experiences creating the New Orleans Master Plan, a document that sets a new course for the city, from land use and transportation planning to environmental protection.
| May 17, 2011
Do these buildings look like buffalo to you?
It’s hard to contemplate winter now that we’re mid-spring, but when the seasons change, ice skaters in Winnipeg will be able to keep warm in plywood shelters designed by Patkau Architects. The designers created temporary shelters inspired by animal behavior—specifically, buffalo bracing against the wind. Check them out.
| May 16, 2011
USGBC and AIA unveil report for greening K-12 schools
The U.S. Green Building Council and the American Institute of Architects unveiled "Local Leaders in Sustainability: A Special Report from Sundance," which outlines a five-point national action plan that mayors and local leaders can use as a framework to develop and implement green schools initiatives.
| May 16, 2011
Dassault Systèmes to distribute Gehry Technologies’ digital project
Dassault Systèmes and Gehry Technologies announced that Gehry Technologies’ Digital Project products will be integrated into the Dassault Systèmes’ portfolio and distributed through Dassault Systèmes. Digital Project is a suite of 3D BIM applications created by Gehry Technologies using Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA as a core modeling engine.
| May 11, 2011
DOE releases guide for 50% more energy-efficient office buildings
The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the release of the first in a new series of Advanced Energy Design Guides to aid in the design of highly energy efficient office buildings. The 50% AEDG series will provide a practical approach to commercial buildings designed to achieve 50% energy savings compared to the commercial building energy code used in many areas of the country.
| May 10, 2011
Google hires Ingenhoven Architects to design new Mountain View office
The current Googleplex is straining at the seams and yet the company is preparing its biggest hiring surge ever, so Google decided now’s the time to build its own office space—a first for the Internet giant. The company hired Ingenhoven Architects, a German firm that specializes in sustainable architecture, to create plans for what could be a 600,000-sf office.
| May 10, 2011
Solar installations on multifamily rooftops aid social change
The Los Angeles Business Council's study on the feasibility of installing solar panels on the city’s multifamily buildings shows there's tremendous rooftop capacity, and that a significant portion of that rooftop capacity comes from buildings in economically depressed neighborhoods. Solar installations could therefore be used to create jobs, lower utility costs, and improve conditions for residents in these neighborhood.
| May 10, 2011
Dinner is now served…atop the Lincoln Memorial?
Take a look at the temporary restaurant sitting atop Brussels’ historic Arc de Triomphe-Triomfboog. The Cube, by Electrolux, offers 18 diners a spectacular view of the Parc du Cinquantenair, and is one of two structures traveling across Europe, making stops at famous landmarks in Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Russia. What do you think about one of these 60-tonne structures being placed on a U.S. memorial?
