There’s a guy named Marc Bodnick, who apparently participates in some kind of social media experiment at Forbes magazine called Quora, where the contributors ask questions of each other and then they all try to answer the question as completely as possible and organize the information effectively, such as “What is a Realistic Trade The Lakers Can Get to Get Dwight Howard”? Kinda sounds like they’re trying to invent Wikipedia, with fewer contributors, but experiment is the way we learn.

Marc decided to address a different question, and the question he decided to answer is: “Will Public Libraries Go Exctinct”? His answer, although he elaborated it in much more detail here, was “basically, yes”, That’s based on his assumption that the most important service libraries have is lending books, and that people don’t borrow books anymore because they all have ereaders, which are more convenient. And also, that most “power readers” will love reading on their Kindles instead of holding a book in their hands. (News flash, Marc, I’m one of those power readers (aka insane bibliomaniacs) and I know many others who read not just one kind of book, but BOTH). My dad agrees with Marc,  by the way… thanks for the support, Dad.

The response to Marc’s theory from librarian Erica Freedman, which appeared just below his response, was this:

Most libraries now lend e-books, music, and magic.

Wow. That’s something I never thought I’d see in Forbes. Or in any response by any librarian to this particular argument. But I like it. And I think it’s true.

Wait. That can’t be right. Maybe I need to finish my coffee?

Okay, done now. Let me see that again.

 

Most libraries now lend e-books, music, and other media as well. But the real reason libraries will disappear is that people “perceive” them as only lending books”.

Well, that’s more what I expected, especially in a response that appears in Forbes. But I liked the first one better, Erica. Optimism and magic are both pluses in the library world. Can I change it back? I think I will, if it’s okay with you.

…Libraries lend e-books, music, and magic.

 

 

Marc, imagine what else they might share with this world. Or others. A Kindle book won’t protect you, once you start moving through the story of Stephen King’s Ur. You might WANT to give that back to the library.

I don’t think anyone wants the magic to die. And, since libraries aren’t businesses, and the world needs them for much more than ebooks, these places of knowledge, growth, and inspiration, the heartblood of their communities, will continue on. And the magic will, too.

And that is why libraries will never die.