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Back in 1976, while studying for my library degree at Western University, I encountered a chatty busdriver. When I told him I was going to library school, he said something like "Hmmm, libraries. Is that where they say 'Ssshhh'?" No one seems to say "SShh" in libraries any more. To be honest, I sometimes wish they would. It's one thing for libraries to offer enclosed meeting spaces for author readings and community events but frankly, when I'm in the stacks, I want to peruse the books in peace and not be constantly bombarded by loud conversations, clashing cellphone ringtones and bleeping video games.
On Wednesday evening, I had planned to attend an event called "Apartment613 Talks: The Future of Libraries" about the future of the public library in Ottawa, to be held at the Shopify Lounge in the Byward Market. As soon as I heard about it, via an e-mail from the Canadian Library Association's Ottawa Network, I replied saying I would like to attend but was not on Facebook (and was having trouble with the eventbrite registration software). I never got a reply. However, when I followed up on Wednesday afternoon (the site had originally indicated that registration would be accepted up to 6 PM), I learned that the event was sold out. I phoned CLA and left a message, which likewise was not returned. I was out of luck!
When I e-mailed Apartment613 to complain about my ill-fated attempt at registration, I DID at least get a prompt and fairly detailed reply, though not a very satisfying one. The gist of it was "This was an apartment613 event, not a CLA event. They just helped to promote it for us." Huh? You mean, in a debate on the future of the library, the three prominent librarian-panelists are just the handmaidens of Apartment613 (a "grassroots community media group")? Moreover, I had assumed that "Apartment613" was so-named because it puts on events in the Ottawa area and 613 is the telephone area code for eastern Ontario, but according to the e-mail, apartment 613 doesn't even HAVE a phone! Like, maybe that's part of the problem right there - no way to interact in real time with a real live person? How can you organize events like debates when that's the way you operate? I am singularly unimpressed with Apartment613 as well as with eventbrite and CLA.
But anyway, I started out this blog wanting to talk about the future of the public library, so that's what I'll now do. My first suggestion? Put libraries back in the hands of librarians instead of hotshot young aspie computer geeks who clearly think Google glasses are infinitely superior to reading glasses (if indeed they've even HEARD of reading glasses!) This suggestion, by the way, applies to ALL types of libraries, not just the public libraries (Library and Archives Canada and other government libraries spring to mind right about now). We're the skilled, educated professionals with Masters- and often higher-level degrees.
Secondly, be aware that a library is NOT the same thing as a bookstore. They perform related but distinct functions. In particular, bookstores - those that are NOT second-hand bookstores, that is - focus on CURRENT materials. There are no back-issues of periodicals, for example, and the books they stock are mostly published within the past couple of years. Those that are published earlier than that are usually by well-known living or recently-dead authors or they are the classics that never go out of print. I think public libraries these days focus a bit too much on current bestsellers, often buying a ridiculous number of copies, all of which takes away from the available budget for subscriptions or for discretionary purchases of excellent books which will all-too-soon be out of print and unavailable through normal channels. A library normally has a collection development policy establishing priorities for the areas within which it collects. A bookstore, understandably given its mandate, collects what will sell.
Another aspect of this library-is-not-a-bookstore is the whole notion of library as physical place and space. Bookstores may encourage browsing to some degree, but the ultimate aim is to get a maximum number of customers in and out as quickly as possible and to get them to part with as much of their money as possible. Even the coffee shops in bookstores, originally set up to encourage longer stays, now no longer allow unpaid-for merchandise in their cafe-areas. And the amount of space they devote to actual books and reading material is decreasing alarmingly! A library, on the other hand, can and should continue to have quiet spaces where people can stay and read or study all day if they so choose.
The Ottawa Public Library recently ran a kind of visioning exercise, asking people what they should start doing, continue doing, and stop doing. It was, of course, run on social media by some sort of outside consulting group and was offering various prizes and other incentives. I didn't participate, except to "lurk" and read what others were saying. It will be interesting to learn the results.
I still hope we will get a new Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library in the near future, even though I don't discount the importance of the smaller branches right in people's communities. But we shall see.
On Wednesday evening, I had planned to attend an event called "Apartment613 Talks: The Future of Libraries" about the future of the public library in Ottawa, to be held at the Shopify Lounge in the Byward Market. As soon as I heard about it, via an e-mail from the Canadian Library Association's Ottawa Network, I replied saying I would like to attend but was not on Facebook (and was having trouble with the eventbrite registration software). I never got a reply. However, when I followed up on Wednesday afternoon (the site had originally indicated that registration would be accepted up to 6 PM), I learned that the event was sold out. I phoned CLA and left a message, which likewise was not returned. I was out of luck!
When I e-mailed Apartment613 to complain about my ill-fated attempt at registration, I DID at least get a prompt and fairly detailed reply, though not a very satisfying one. The gist of it was "This was an apartment613 event, not a CLA event. They just helped to promote it for us." Huh? You mean, in a debate on the future of the library, the three prominent librarian-panelists are just the handmaidens of Apartment613 (a "grassroots community media group")? Moreover, I had assumed that "Apartment613" was so-named because it puts on events in the Ottawa area and 613 is the telephone area code for eastern Ontario, but according to the e-mail, apartment 613 doesn't even HAVE a phone! Like, maybe that's part of the problem right there - no way to interact in real time with a real live person? How can you organize events like debates when that's the way you operate? I am singularly unimpressed with Apartment613 as well as with eventbrite and CLA.
But anyway, I started out this blog wanting to talk about the future of the public library, so that's what I'll now do. My first suggestion? Put libraries back in the hands of librarians instead of hotshot young aspie computer geeks who clearly think Google glasses are infinitely superior to reading glasses (if indeed they've even HEARD of reading glasses!) This suggestion, by the way, applies to ALL types of libraries, not just the public libraries (Library and Archives Canada and other government libraries spring to mind right about now). We're the skilled, educated professionals with Masters- and often higher-level degrees.
Secondly, be aware that a library is NOT the same thing as a bookstore. They perform related but distinct functions. In particular, bookstores - those that are NOT second-hand bookstores, that is - focus on CURRENT materials. There are no back-issues of periodicals, for example, and the books they stock are mostly published within the past couple of years. Those that are published earlier than that are usually by well-known living or recently-dead authors or they are the classics that never go out of print. I think public libraries these days focus a bit too much on current bestsellers, often buying a ridiculous number of copies, all of which takes away from the available budget for subscriptions or for discretionary purchases of excellent books which will all-too-soon be out of print and unavailable through normal channels. A library normally has a collection development policy establishing priorities for the areas within which it collects. A bookstore, understandably given its mandate, collects what will sell.
Another aspect of this library-is-not-a-bookstore is the whole notion of library as physical place and space. Bookstores may encourage browsing to some degree, but the ultimate aim is to get a maximum number of customers in and out as quickly as possible and to get them to part with as much of their money as possible. Even the coffee shops in bookstores, originally set up to encourage longer stays, now no longer allow unpaid-for merchandise in their cafe-areas. And the amount of space they devote to actual books and reading material is decreasing alarmingly! A library, on the other hand, can and should continue to have quiet spaces where people can stay and read or study all day if they so choose.
The Ottawa Public Library recently ran a kind of visioning exercise, asking people what they should start doing, continue doing, and stop doing. It was, of course, run on social media by some sort of outside consulting group and was offering various prizes and other incentives. I didn't participate, except to "lurk" and read what others were saying. It will be interesting to learn the results.
I still hope we will get a new Main branch of the Ottawa Public Library in the near future, even though I don't discount the importance of the smaller branches right in people's communities. But we shall see.
