The Big Reveal

The story from my visit to the new school makes a good lead-in to the theory I've been attempting to test. It all revolves around the idea that the "brand" of libraries is books. You say the word library and the instant association is books. The technology director at the school said they don't really have a library because they don't really have books. "Everything's online," he said. Except, apparently, the library. Books = library, no books = no library. And if everything's online, there's no need for the school to have a librarian. Because libarians apparently don't teach research skills or know anything about searching for information or have anything to offer in an online environment. That seemed to be the assumption, anyway. The school doesn't need a librarian because the school doesn't have books.

The thoughts really started with a speaker we saw at a recent library conference. He was from an ad agency and writes commercials for a living (like this one). He thinks of his job as telling stories. And the library has a special place in his heart as the place where stories are kept. The place where the books are. In a hyperactive world overloaded with noise, information, and technology, the library is the one place where the people who need to be are still shushed so you can enjoy a quiet, peaceful encounter with the written word. As part of the presentation he created an entirely silent, text-only video meditation on the power of the written word. The whole thing was really nice. At the end I felt inspired about being a librarian.

But then I said, wait a minute, his whole presentation was about books. And just books. To him, libraries are nothing but books. He said they were a safe haven from the technology that overwhelms the rest of his life. As part of his preparation he asked people at his firm to share their library stories. All were about books (or librarians). There was no acknowledgment that we have computers, audios, videos, or any other type of media. The thing to love about the library is the books because that's what the library is--books.

So it got me (and my post-conference conversation partners) thinking. Even though your average library these days is so much more than just books, many of those other things are still relatively new. How many of them were around when today's adults were having their formative library experiences? Libraries have changed, but is the brand of library = books so strong because libraries were first defined to us when that's all they were? So I thought I'd check and see. The responses would seem to back it up. CDL: books (and architecture). Me: books (although drawing as much as reading; might explain my radical posture these days). Gobula: librarians (and books). Leelu: books and social space (showing her youth, like the neighborhood hoodlums who like to hang out at our places these days ;-). ZiaSun: books and librarians. But things are changing. What stories will today's children tell about the library when they are adults? Will books still be primary or will video games and other media replace them? Will those non-book library memories be as meaningful?

And the thing is, we are still primarily about books. We take pride in our Reader's Advisory (RA) abilities, advising readers on what books they might like. We have extensive trainings, spend hours reading reviews and getting to know the books, read them in our off time, create booklists, brochures, and bookmarks with recommendations, go to schools and give booktalks, have book clubs, etc. Books, books, books. I've heard someone at work say we need to really look at what we do RA-wise and consider the other media in that light. We have movies, but do we really offer Viewer's Advisory services? Sure, maybe the odd movie fan here and there, but as a comprehensive service? And if we're going to have video games, shouldn't we have accompanying Gamer's Advisory? And what about computers? So, yeah, we may have the other mediums, but books are still primary. What happens when we really give the others their equal due? Then what will be people's defining library stories? What will be the library brand?

Unshelved