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Social Bookmarking: Today's Libraries
Adjust to Shifting Generations of Patrons |
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9 October 2006 |
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Even in towns with vibrant pubic library systems the
strains of the gap between print-centric elderly patrons
and a born-on-the-Web generation are looming large. Elderly
populations are growing while the young are moving away
from libraries as centers for ideas and social learning
activities. With a heavy presence at the polls senior
citizens will be making sure that libraries remain
important local resources. But will they be willing to let
libraries move on to serve the new generation on whom their
future depends? |
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Our
town library is a pretty neat place. I am told it has the
8th highest level of circulation in
New England, in spite of its location in a town of fewer
than 30,000 people. It's a beautiful facility that has a
solid core collection, great reference resources, children's
services, PCs and a video library that puts our local chain
rental stores to shame. Generous space is given also to local
art exhibits and an all-star roster of authors and artists
speak regularly in the library meeting hall. Its online
presence is vibrant and marshals together many key local and
subscription resources outside of the library walls. And thank
goodness for its great wireless network and reading rooms where
business people can find refuge when away from the office. All
in all our town has much to be thankful for in having this
great establishment.
But at a recent focus group of the town's citizens that
focused on library services this wealth of good news was
exposed to the widespread challenges that library facilities
face in even the most favorable circumstances. The biggest
challenge that became evident in this session was the
generation gap between a rapidly aging core of citizens who
have helped to develop the facility into its current position
and a new generation of
digital natives with a different outlook on both content
and community. An expanding base of senior citizens rely on the
library for both information resources and a community
environment in which they can overcome the isolation so
prevalent in suburban towns. In turn the library relies on
these seniors to help drive its key fund-raising events such as
the annual book fair.
But as these citizens become more frail and less
contributing the gap between their requirements and the
requirements of the online generations becomes all the more
apparent. Kids still make active use of the library with their
parents when young, but once they discover Google, Amazon and
Wikipedia for school projects they are rarely seen in the
stacks. Middle-aged patrons eager to bump into their peers in
an information-centric environment are just as likely to sip
some coffee at a chain bookstore where the space devoted to
comfy snacking and browsing is more generous than most
libraries. The only reasonably young person at the focus group
was a middle-aged mother who came to the library with her
children to work on writing books - hardly a typical patron
profile.
A lack of community involvement from younger patrons is not
unusual for libraries, but with a wide variety of attractive
alternatives to libraries for both community and content the
queue of adults who will gravitate to libraries to fill the
shoes of its aging supporters is in danger of drying up. Even
if they do manage to show up, what will they be doing in ten
years to help? As eBooks begin to take off what will happen to
the book sales that helped to drive both funding and community
involvement? And as video collections and other media sources
go online, how will our libraries adjust to new content
licensing requirements?
There are any number of areas in which local libraries can
move to continue their central role in helping content to be
the glue of communities, not the least of which would be the
following:
- Become leaders in content technologies. Stressed
library budgets are always trying to balance collection needs
with technology infrastructure, so bringing up technology as
a solution is a sore point oftentimes. But when you think of
how older patrons line up for the latest and greatest books,
it would be nice to think that a younger generation would
flock to libraries to try out the latest alternatives to
iPods or to use a screening room for looking at a movie
downloaded from an online source. Libraries need to assess
soberly how quickly they can move out of the collection
acquisition business and into the venue enablement business
using licensed electronic sources to provide a unique "there"
reason for a facility that is positioned more effectively
against commercial electronic alternatives.
- Promote online reference services more aggressively.
A generation brought up on Google is not a likely source of
support for reference desk services but in fact it's probably
the most important resource that towns can provide citizens
of all ages. Many towns already use online chat facilities to
enable more direct contacts with reference librarians,
helping them to reach out to digital natives who need
guidance or access to specialized sources. The term
"reference librarian" works against this generational change,
though: it implies someone helping patrons to navigate dusty
piles of forgotten materials. Today's reference librarians
are as expert on online materials as they are with highly
specialized print collections. How about a title upgrade to
"Information Guide" or "Content Genius?"
- Prepare for a new sense of community. Supporting
aging patrons is a key mission for libraries, but it must not
obscure the pressing need to build stronger ties to younger
generations who relate to content in radically different
ways. This new generation of thinkers needs to be sold on the
idea that libraries have new ideas for them as well as
references and a place to hang out socially. Unlike earlier
generations the emerging digital natives are oftentimes
authors themselves, providing content and social context to
their peers that should be captured in a local context as
well as in the online ether. Time for your library to sponsor
an online chat on skateboarding down at the beach with
library-sponsored social bookmarks? Maybe so.
It was heartening to see dozens of citizens show up for the
focus group to express what our library meant to them. It's a
crucial center in a town that needs a "there" which allows
people to gather around something other than shopping or sports
activities. But the "there" of libraries is struggling to
become a space that enables online-savvy patrons to gather for
learning and sharing in new and engaged ways. Much
depends on them making that transition gracefully - before
digital natives lose interest in one of our most important
information institutions.
-
John Blossom
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