Follow Discovery on Twitter Should a library be a place?
By Tim Steury | Posted on June 22, 2009 | 11 Comments »
Categories: Library and museum studies
I’ve just started working on an article for Washington State Magazine about the changing role of the library. Without even interviewing a librarian yet, I’ve found the questions quickly accumulating.
Sculpture by Dudley Pratt - The Reader- aka Nature Boy at sunset. By Robert Hubner.
Among the really fundamental library sources I used to use for background when delving into a subject or article were the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, Essay and General Literature Index, and Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s been years now since I’ve visited a physical library to open a paper version of either.
Britannica, of course, has been online for some time now. I’ve gravitated to other online indexes—as well, I admit, as general Google searches. As most of the more specialized information for whatever I’m working on tends to come from actual interviews with experts and other primary sources, that’s about the extent of my library use any more. In fact, these days, about the only reason I go to the actual library, which is a three-minute walk up the hill from my office, is to check out books.
Books? you say. How quaint. Not yet quaint, I reply. In spite of Kindle and Google digitalization and Bartleby, I plan to buy and read paper books for a long time to come. And I suspect they will be available. Much as I like online reference, other than for reference purposes, I’ve never read a book online or on a machine.
But back to the library. Other than a repository for books, what is the current role of the library? Is it just a big turbocharged search engine? A crutch for students nowhere near as technically adept as everyone says they are? I don’t know.
All I know—and here I’m about to ramble a bit and perhaps become repeatedly contradictory—is I miss the idea of the library I have stuck in my mind. That idea looks much like the central Boston Public Library, the old wing, with its marble staircases and central courtyard. And its reading room with comfortable chairs and green-shaded reading lamps. And a hall dedicated to solely to murals by Singer Sargent. My idea also bears some resemblance to decisions made here at Washington State University back in the late 1940s.
President Holland had long dreamed of building a cathedral-like library, similar to the Suzzalo Library at the University of Washington. It would be located at the highest spot on campus. It would be an inspiration.
So far, so good. Four days after WSC’s new president, Compton, took office, he charged Holland with the job of researching the eminent libraries of the East, with the goal of a building that would accommodate new information media and technologies.
Which Holland’s gothic dream would not.
The soaring, stained-glass cathedral that Holland envisioned was just that. It was not the functional tool that Compton and many faculty members believed was needed to support WSC’s aspirations and needs.
So we ended up with the ironically named Holland Library, a very 1950s building. Other than some nice marble in the lobby, it was pure function. In fact, its most identifiable feature, Nature Boy, a bas-relief sculpture on the southwest corner, was added later, to lend some interest to a very functional, but uninteresting piece of architecture.
In spite of the library’s changing, and perhaps reverting, functions, I would argue that enobling architecture should be its primary trait. And function.
The new library took an encouraging step in that direction with its glass teepee and light-filled atrium. And the glass south wall of the library, looking out across campus and the Palouse towards Kamiak Butte, is beautiful. Still, it feels more like a waiting room than a reading room.
And with that, I may as well open myself completely to derision for living in a past largely constructed of my desires. I miss the card catalog. More later.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 am and is filed under Library and museum studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 25th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I’d like to think that libraries will continue to exist as places (in addition to cyber-sites). Despite optimistic claims about digitization, it seems unlikely that all the world’s manuscripts will be rendered electonically (and thus instantly) available. And what about printed books themselves, along with their material histories, their indications of provenance, their signs of readership? Such evidence forms the locus of much contemporary historical and literary research, and it’s not available in digital form.
Electronic search functions are invaluable, but they don’t constitute a complete replacement for the mode of discovery provided by the sheer proximity of books on shelves. I don’t know how often I’ve searched for a specialized book, then found a better one while browsing. Libraries obviously have to adapt to new technologies, but we should be wary of assuming that the new invariably surpasses the old.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I’m a WSU librarian, and I strongly believe in the notion of Library as Place. Its just we have multiple spaces and places now – analog/physical and digital/virtual. Speaking for myself, I want a beautiful, comfortable, *functional* building that truly symbolizes and pragmatically manifests the library as the crossroads of the university, where everyone’s work meets and ideas and people come together.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:35 am
[...] Librarian Input – “Should a Library Be a Place?”…07.02.09 2 07 2009 Tim Steury from Washington State Magazine has started writing an article and seeks input “about the [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I’m a library technician at the WSU Libraries and have been working here for some 27 years. I’ve seen a lot of change. And, like Mr. Steury, I’m conflicted over what I’ve seen. I do understand, and happily live with, the advantages of electronically-based information technology: speed, convenience, greater accuracy, wider access to materials, to name just a few. However, in my experience there are also drawbacks.
Several years ago I wrote a note to a WSU library administator titled “Are Libraries Becoming Hostile To Readers?”. The change I was reacting to at the time specifically involved the evolution of the WSU Libraries as Place. They were becoming, and continue to be, much more active and dynamic. They were/are places where students meet to discuss things, work on projects together, and generally interact – out loud. Being of the Old School I often found myself wandering from place to place in the library, vainly searching for a quiet spot where I could read and reflect in peace.
Over the past few years I’ve become more tolerant of the noise I find around me, but I still wonder what we, as a culture and as individuals, are losing in reflective interaction with the material (and ourselves), while gaining the new dynamic.
This isn’t a complaint. And I don’t see libraries slowing down any time soon, or going backwards to a quieter time. I’m just wondering aloud what effects this new emphasis in libraries on speed, dynamic interaction and out-loud connection may have on how we envision thought, thought process, and reflection. To more effectively face the problems and questions posed by living in 21st Century America, do we need places that rev up the thought process in order to keep up? Or places that encourage slower, more reflective thought? Or both somehow? I don’t have an answer for this. I lean toward the Reflective, but am adapting to the Dynamic. And thus, as I said at the beginning, I’m conflicted…….
July 31st, 2009 at 11:59 am
The current role of the libraries – and I am speaking of academic libraries here – goes beyond selecting quality materials and making them available to users in whatever format. In a university, the library-as-place is a vital part of the learning community. We teach classes on information literacy skills, we broker loans of materials from other libraries, and most importantly we provide the place where students can come to study, to do research, and to collaborate with one another on projects and papers. Our larger Pullman campus libraries have study rooms with equipment, including computers and software, geared to facilitating student interaction and innovative problem solving. We are the intellectual Commons for the University (and yes, you CAN eat in the Libraries!)
August 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I really like part of the Wikipedia entry for “Library” and think it’s an appropriate response to the question, “What is the current role of the library?”
Here it is:
“Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. In addition to providing materials, they also provide the services of specialists, librarians, who are experts at finding and organizing information and at interpreting information needs.
More recently, libraries are understood as extending beyond the physical walls of a building, by including material accessible by electronic means, and by providing the assistance of librarians in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools.”
I think that’s really lovely. That describes the WSU Libraries where I work. And, I hope it was written by someone who uses libraries, and not by a librarian.
October 19th, 2009 at 3:01 am
Thanks For keeping it on point – it’s always easier to read that way
Best Regards
April 20th, 2010 at 7:00 am
To more effectively face the problems and questions posed by living in 21st Century America, do we need places that rev up the thought process in order to keep up?
September 20th, 2010 at 6:58 am
Great article. Thanks for shating. You’ve made my day. Not only it makes a lot of sense, but it also makes you look at things another way.
October 30th, 2010 at 10:39 am
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November 20th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
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