A writer named Seth Godin wrote a blog post called “The Future of the Library” .  Honestly, it didn’t say anything new. He wrote that the model of the library as a warehouse for books isn’t working anymore. In a lot of places, it isn’t. That doesn’t mean libraries shouldn’t or won’t have print books. It’s just not enough. Why do you go to the library? Do you go sometimes to check your email, play World of Warcraft, or write up your resume? You need a computer for that. Maybe you’re one of the few people who don’t have a DVD player- you can find VHS tapes at the library. Going on a long drive? You could pay awesome amounts of money for an audiobook you might listen to once, or you could go to the library. Librarians are working hard to get publishers to allow them to offer ebooks because there are taxpayers in their community who demand it.  Have any of these other formats made paper books obsolete? I don’t think so. Offering new ways to consume (and now produce) information isn’t going to change that.  Libraries already do that. Okay, maybe they don’t arm the librarians with soldering irons.

In the school library, and that’s where I worked most recently, the kind of librarian he describes is the kind we aspire to be. The kind who encourages kids to become subject experts who can share new information with not just their peers, but with everyone.  The kind who gives kids tools and time and opportunity to create YouTube videos and Scratch programs. The kind who collaborates with teachers, parents, administrators, and kids to create the best learning environment possible. The kind who integrates digital and media literacy into the curriculum.  School librarians and public librarians are in different environments, but no matter what the environment, the job we have is to support our community’s needs by giving them all kinds of access to the kinds of information they want and need.  Part of that is flooding them with books to create engaged, literate readers, but that’s the beginning, not the end.

At Agnostic, Maybe, Andy Woodworth offered a response that I think did a better job of addressing the issues in Godin’s post. He wrote,

“We are in tune with an emerging sharing culture. We strive for information access for our constituent communities. We work to put books in hand, answers at fingertips, and ideas in minds. And we’ll dance with The Devil to make it possible. “

Darn right.

Honestly, I don’t think Godin knows much about what’s actually going on in libraries today. His vision of the future library is not radical- it’s already happening in a lot of places. In fact, a futurist came to a donors’ event at my own public library and said many of the same things (I didn’t like him much, but he’s already proved to be right on some things). Whatever errors or annoying remarks Godin made (I am not a “data sherpa” or “conceierge”, thank you very much) his final point, which he repeated multiple times, but which I think was lost in the shuffle, is one that I really appreciate, especially now as librarians are actually on trial for their jobs (see below for my post on that)

“We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture”.

So there.