Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

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  • Ed Harrow
    Retro Member #1235
    • Mar 2000
    • 7343

    Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

    What do you invision a state-of-the-art library looking like in 40 years? Contents, infrastructure, services, etc?
    "Congress doesn't regulate Wall Street, Wall Street regulates Congress."

    MAKE WAY! MAKE WAY! "I have heard of some kind of men that put quarrels purposely on others."

    As a general rule, the better it felt when you said it, the more trouble it's going to get you into.

    International Financial Conspirator, Collaborator, Gun Runner, Ace Philosopher-King and all-around smartie pants
  • paul oman
    .........................
    • Aug 2001
    • 1674

    #2
    Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

    Large print......

    Comment

    • seanz
      Resilient?
      • Nov 2006
      • 23662

      #3
      Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

      Like this......but with less books and more, much more, electronic media.
      We don't know how lucky we are....

      Comment

      • BrianW
        not your average member
        • Nov 2002
        • 28191

        #4
        Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

        A bank of computer monitors.

        Oh, and everyone will wear white spandex jumpsuits.
        “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”― Mark Twain,

        Comment

        • seanz
          Resilient?
          • Nov 2006
          • 23662

          #5
          Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

          Originally posted by BrianW
          A bank of computer monitors.

          Oh, and everyone will wear white spandex jumpsuits.
          You still not telling?
          We don't know how lucky we are....

          Comment

          • bobbys
            Senior Member
            • Jun 2009
            • 30711

            #6
            Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

            Comment

            • huisjen
              innocent widdle bunny
              • Jun 2001
              • 8689

              #7
              Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

              I imagine it looking a bit like a library of 60 years ago. Books, tables, a few chairs by the window for good lighting. In 40 years, lots is going to happen, and it won't all be forward progress.

              Dan
              Master of The Ensign's Gig: a 7 1/2 foot flat bottom plywood skiff,
              and Prudence: Lightning #7896.

              Think Good Thoughts.
              Thoughts become words.
              Words become actions.
              Actions become habits.
              Habits become character.
              Character becomes destiny.

              Comment

              • Milo Christensen
                Banned
                • May 2006
                • 6578

                #8
                Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                Interesting question. As more and more content comes online and I become more and more cocooned, I find less and less need to go to the library. When I'm there, the vast majority of the people there are using or waiting for computers, presumably these are people that can't afford a computer and internet access at home.

                So, my question is - do libraries have a future? What will the widespread adoption of city wide wi-fi networks and the availability of $50 netbooks do to libraries? Would we be better served spending the money increasing people's ability to access the net?

                Comment

                • Ed Harrow
                  Retro Member #1235
                  • Mar 2000
                  • 7343

                  #9
                  Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                  Originally posted by Milo Christensen
                  Interesting question. ...

                  So, my question is - do libraries have a future? ...
                  So, you see, in Hopkinton we like bricks and mortar... "We need a new library!" IIRC the cost is something like $11 very large ones. I can't help but wonder if the library of the future might not work on something akin to Netflix, with some large, central, depositories, to which one would gain access via a virtual library card. I dunno, seems a bit out there, at this point, to be contemplating such an expediture for something that could well be obsolete before we know it.
                  "Congress doesn't regulate Wall Street, Wall Street regulates Congress."

                  MAKE WAY! MAKE WAY! "I have heard of some kind of men that put quarrels purposely on others."

                  As a general rule, the better it felt when you said it, the more trouble it's going to get you into.

                  International Financial Conspirator, Collaborator, Gun Runner, Ace Philosopher-King and all-around smartie pants

                  Comment

                  • oznabrag
                    Historical Illiterate
                    • Nov 2008
                    • 40798

                    #10
                    Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                    Originally posted by Ed Harrow
                    So, you see, in Hopkinton we like bricks and mortar... "We need a new library!" IIRC the cost is something like $11 very large ones. I can't help but wonder if the library of the future might not work on something akin to Netflix, with some large, central, depositories, to which one would gain access via a virtual library card. I dunno, seems a bit out there, at this point, to be contemplating such an expediture for something that could well be obsolete before we know it.
                    Books are pretty much permanent. Bits, on the other hand....not so much.
                    Rattling the teacups.

                    Comment

                    • Glen Longino
                      Senior Member
                      • Jun 2008
                      • 28863

                      #11
                      Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                      Hmmm!
                      I visualize huge libraries with hammocks, cots, armchairs, featherbeds and dozens of nubile "librarians" bringing me an endless supply of reading material and Margaritas.
                      Call me a pervert! er, I mean a librul atheist!
                      Last edited by Glen Longino; 09-25-2010, 11:42 PM.

                      Comment

                      • elf
                        opinionated crone
                        • Sep 2006
                        • 19264

                        #12
                        Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                        Of course, with Google attempting to digitize everything that's ever been printed, and make it all searchable online and downloadable for free, the definition of library is likely to be attached to the size of electronic storage - that is if we can resolve how to generate the energy to power that storage.

                        I imagine in 50 years the world will be so different that physical library buildings will be completely obsolete except for storage of historical materials which will require care the standards for which we already know - climate control, deacidification, controlled access.
                        A society predicated on the assumption that everyone in it should want to get rich is not well situated to become either ethical or imaginative.

                        Photographer of sailing and sailboats
                        And other things, too.

                        http://www.landsedgephoto.photodeck.com

                        Comment

                        • Milo Christensen
                          Banned
                          • May 2006
                          • 6578

                          #13
                          Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                          Originally posted by oznabrag
                          Books are pretty much permanent. Bits, on the other hand....not so much.
                          Actually, with modern data warehouses, I think the reverse is much more likely to be true. There's a billboard campaign here in Lansing with the theme of being careful what you say online: "Once it's online you can never delete it."

                          122,101 libraries in the United States, 149,521 librarians, 192,233 other paid staff. Fair bit of energy being consumed there, I dare say.

                          Don't get me wrong, I love libraries, can spend hours and hours in them just browsing, support every library millage that comes up, once donated and printed 25,000 envelopes and letters for a millage campaign, pay my library fines with a smile (Lansing's area library doesn't even charge overdue fines!), and have saved far more money paying my small library taxes vs buying all the books I've read. I don't buy books, generally.

                          Comment

                          • Canoez
                            Did I say that out loud?
                            • Sep 2007
                            • 20615

                            #14
                            Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                            I can see a mixture of hard-copy books on shelves and electronically available media. Most newer books (novels) are available as hard-copy, e-books, and audio-books. Somehow, I see the bigger issue being how copyright rules change to allow for the fact that people can view and probably print hard-copies or save digital files of what they've accessed through the library.

                            The big improvement that I foresee is a better ability to search the media and images in media.
                            "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."
                            -William A. Ward

                            Comment

                            • paul oman
                              .........................
                              • Aug 2001
                              • 1674

                              #15
                              Re: Imagine you are charged to build a new library...

                              not likely anyone will ever be able to easily open up a 100 year old computer file and read the text. Also, takes too many disks and electronic book readers to hold up the corner of my desk..

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