tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/future-libraries-19595/articlesFuture libraries – The Conversation2019-04-01T10:44:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1118952019-04-01T10:44:44Z2019-04-01T10:44:44Z7 unexpected things that libraries offer besides books<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266441/original/file-20190328-139374-1wrn8v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Libraries are offering new and innovative things that belie their historic image as silent places to read.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Local libraries are often thought of as places to check out books or engage in some silent reading. But libraries offer <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3209281.3209403">so much more</a> than just what can be found on their shelves or done in hushed tones.</p>
<p>And, in some instances, libraries have become places to make some noise.</p>
<p>From laptops and 3D laser printers, libraries today are providing the public with access to new technologies and education. In our <a href="https://www.ctg.albany.edu/projects/imls2017/">research project on public libraries in smart communities</a>, in which I serve as the principal investigator, we found that a public library serves as an <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10125/59766">anchor institution</a> for these communities. It is a role libraries can be expected to fullfil even more in the future as technology continues to evolve in new and fascinating ways.</p>
<p>Here are seven examples from throughout the country of libraries offering more than books.</p>
<h2>Robots</h2>
<p>The Westport Free Library in Westport, Connecticut – population of roughly 28,000 – has a <a href="http://westportlibrary.org/events/robot-training-classes-schedule">Robot Open Lab</a> where the public can learn how to program robots to respond to simple commands, catch and kick a small soccer ball and even dance. The library’s two robots, Vincent and Nancy, autonomous, programmable humanoid robots, arrived in September 2014. Since then, <a href="http://westportlibrary.org/about/news/robotics-library">more than 2,000 people</a> have learned how to program them.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266445/original/file-20190328-139377-52zd6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some libraries offer patrons the chance to program robots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-China-France-Robots/c8d8d6208dd64c95a2ff1ee1e4c65a34/24/0">AP photo</a></span>
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<h2>Wi-Fi for your home</h2>
<p>For those who may lack the financial resources to buy Wi-Fi, libraries such as the Chicago Public Library offer <a href="https://www.chipublib.org/news/borrow-a-wifi-hotspot-from-chicago-public-library/">Wi-Fi hotspot lending programs</a> that allow patrons to access the internet from home. Some have collections of laptops, e-readers and MP3 players available for check out.</p>
<h2>Creation tools</h2>
<p>Along similar technical lines, public libraries offer free access to <a href="https://www.makerspaces.com/what-is-a-makerspace/">maker spaces</a>, which are laboratories filled with advanced technical equipment like 3D printers and laser cutters. </p>
<p>For instance, the <a href="https://chattlibrary.org/4th-floor/">4th Floor</a> in the Chattanooga Public Library in Tennessee is a 12,000-square-foot public laboratory and educational facility with a focus on information, design, technology and the applied arts. The library also has classes to teach citizens how to use the equipment. </p>
<p>The goal isn’t for every citizen to start their own new tech company, but to expose people to the technology as a matter of education and empowerment.</p>
<h2>Recording studios</h2>
<p>Chattanooga also has a <a href="https://chattlibrary.org/thestudio/">fully functional music studio</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266443/original/file-20190328-139345-fm2x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Members of a band record music at a Chattanooga public library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>With a valid library card, a patron can reserve a three-hour session in the studio – which is filled with state-of-the-art recording studio equipment – to work on projects and learn the art of recording. A studio instructor is available to help inspire, educate and spark creativity.</p>
<p>For those who want to build and fix things, Chattanooga also has an extensive hand- and power-tool collection filled with hammers, wrench sets, drills and saws among many other tools. Cardholders who are 18 or older can check out <a href="https://chattlibrary.org/2018/11/07/tool-library/">up to three tools at a time</a> for one week. </p>
<h2>Open data</h2>
<p>Some libraries serve as places to learn more about how to take advantage of open data – particularly since the January passage of the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/15/transparency-seeking-open-government-data-act-signed-into-law/">OPEN Government Act</a>. The new law requires federal agencies to make the data they have on anything – from health to crime – available to the public by publishing it in a machine-readable format, such as an Excel file, that allows for use and reuse. The benefits of accessing these data include informed debate, better decision-making and the development of innovative new services.</p>
<p>The Chapel Hill Public Library in North Carolina offers <a href="https://www.chapelhillopendata.org/page/home1/">Chapel Hill Open Data</a> in partnership with the town. The library also organizes open data events for academics, business entrepreneurs, civic hackers or anyone who’s interested in transparency and open data use.</p>
<h2>Unique collections</h2>
<p>Even with all of this technology, libraries are also places where the public can learn about and appreciate the unique and artistic sides of life.</p>
<p>The art gallery at the Hillsboro Public Library in Oregon opened in 2013 to serve as a community cultural space. Since then, the library <a href="http://starj.com/direct/woman_s_passion_for_painting_flows_again+5021flows+576f6d616e27732070617373696f6e20666f72207061696e74696e6720666c6f777320616761696e">displays local art</a> for two-month exhibitions between November and August.</p>
<p>Since its first growing season in 2014, the <a href="http://www.duluthlibrary.org/adults/duluth-seed-library/">Duluth Public Library’s Seed Library</a> in Minnesota has offered the community varieties of tomato, pepper, bean and pea seeds. In addition to the seeds themselves, the library has education and resources about growing and saving seeds and organic gardening. Typically, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-sharing-economy-for-plants-seed-libraries-are-sprouting-up-106432">seed library</a> patrons return some seeds from their harvest to make the library self-sustaining.</p>
<p>Virginia’s Arlington Public Library has an <a href="https://library.arlingtonva.us/borrow/american-girl/">American Girl doll collection</a> available for people to borrow along with related books.</p>
<h2>Health care</h2>
<p>No library service will be of much use if you’re not in good health. </p>
<p>Recognizing this, the <a href="https://www.freelibrary.org/">Free Library of Philadelphia</a>, one of the largest public library systems in the world, offers myriad health-related options for its patrons. For instance, the library loans health equipment such as <a href="https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/2088121">blood pressure monitors</a>. It also has <a href="https://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/post/3598">resources to help people</a> find health care, sign up for federal benefits and get free or low-cost food.</p>
<p>Beyond traditional health care, the Free Library of Philadelphia also has a <a href="https://libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/culinary/">Culinary Literacy Center</a> that offers a wide range of programs for eaters of all interests and tastes. At the Parkway Central Library branch, nurses and social workers are on-site every weekday to talk about mental and physical health, answer questions, check your blood pressure and help schedule an appointment with doctors.</p>
<p>But this is not the only library focusing on health. The <a href="http://miamipl.okpls.org/">Miami Library</a> in Oklahoma has made health literacy a central part of its operations, offering everything from diabetes prevention to yoga classes, as well as healthy cooking demonstrations and even a community garden.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mila Gascó-Hernández receives funding from The Institute of Museums and Library Services. This article is the result of the IMLS-funded project " Enabling Smart, Inclusive, and Connected Communities: The Role of Public Libraries", where she serves as the PI.</span></em></p>With advancements in technology, libraries are offering much more than something to read. A library researcher offers a sampling of some unexpected items that library patrons can check out these days.Mila Gascó-Hernández, Research Associate Professor and Associate Research Director for the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/906382018-01-25T19:12:33Z2018-01-25T19:12:33ZEssays On Air: Why libraries can and must change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203204/original/file-20180124-72597-ot1ryv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It is about a radical transformation in reading practices.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcella Cheng/NY-CC-BD</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the age of the globalisation of everything – and the privatisation of everything else - libraries can and must change. In fact, it’s already underway, as new technologies take books and libraries to places that are, as yet, unimaginable. </p>
<p>That’s what we’re unpacking today on Essays On Air, where we bring you fascinating long form essays in audio form.</p>
<p>Today, Camilla Nelson, Associate Professor of Writing at the University of Notre Dame, reads her essay, titled <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-libraries-can-and-must-change-83496">Why libraries can and must change</a>.</p>
<p>Nelson takes us from the ancient Library of Alexandria to the New York Public Library and explores the problems that arise when books are excluded, destroyed, censored and forgotten. And, indeed, when libraries are decimated.</p>
<p>Join us as we read to you here at Essays On Air, a podcast from The Conversation.</p>
<p>Find us and subscribe in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/essays-on-air/id1333743838?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.</p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Snow by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/Cinematic/Snow">David Szesztay</a></p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/44076/">Big chain</a> by daveincamas</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/jcgd2/sounds/131259/">Traffic noise</a> in the street by jcgd2</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/Kyodon/sounds/153423/">Automatic door</a> by Kyodon</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/jakobthiesen/sounds/188420/">Kids Birthday Party Crowd</a> by jakobthiesen</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/raremess/sounds/222558/">Cardboard burning</a> by Rare Mess Recordings</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/Quistard/sounds/231939/">Plunger-pop </a>by Quistard</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/mariiao2/sounds/232803/">environment 1st floor</a> by mariiao2</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/Duophonic/sounds/248272/">Moderate waves on the edge of a river</a> by Duophonic</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/deleted_user_3667256/sounds/320328/">breaking objects</a> by deleted_user_3667256</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/339673/">Vacuum cleaner</a>, by InspectorJ</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/nathanaellentz/sounds/342156/">Morning docks</a> by nathanaellentz</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/ScreamStudio/sounds/392616/">Tearing paper</a> by ScreamStudio</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/AryaNotStark/sounds/407632/">Shhh Sounds by AryaNotStark</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwF_LnTqLUM">Best Bernard Black Moments, Black Books by Channel 4</a></p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/MAT64/The_Midnight_Eclipse_vol1/11_Ye_Olde_Green_Inn">Ye Olde Green Inn by MAT64</a></p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Freeharmonic_Orchestra/Space_Robots_the_Future/11_-_RoboHobo">Robo Hobo by The Freeharmonic Orchestra</a></p>
<p><em>This episode was edited by Jenni Henderson. Illustration by Marcella Cheng.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It's about a radical transformation in reading practices, as explained in this episode of Essays On Air.Sunanda Creagh, Senior EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/834962017-09-07T20:14:26Z2017-09-07T20:14:26ZFriday essay: why libraries can and must change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185023/original/file-20170907-25933-1y7jcj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New technologies are taking books and libraries to places that are, as yet, unimaginable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a chapter towards the end of Stuart Kells’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35111748-the-library">The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders</a>, in which the author envisions the library of the future as one in which “dreary hordes of students” stare mindlessly at “computers and reading machines”, ignorant of the more refined pleasures of paper and ink, vellum and leather.</p>
<p>This – the death of the book – is a familiar lament recounted by bibliophiles everywhere; a tragic epic in which the Goliath of technology slays the David of art and culture.</p>
<p>It may be superficially appealing to some. And yet, it misses the reality that writing itself is also a technology. Along with the wheel and the lever, it is one of the greatest technologies ever invented. The history of writing predates the invention of the book. It parallels and is a part of the history of other technological forms.</p>
<p>The history of the library is replete with mechanical marvels.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185011/original/file-20170907-7455-q1fyrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An illustration of a bookwheel from 1588.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Take, for example, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/behold-the-kindle-of-the-16th-century/273577/">the book wheel</a>, the scholar’s technology of the 16th century, an ingenious mechanical device operated by foot or hand controls, allowing a reader to move backwards and forwards across editions and volumes, referencing many different books as quickly possible.</p>
<p>Closer to our own century, there’s the<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Books-Buildings-Social-Engineering-Libraries/dp/0754672077"> Book Railways</a> of the Boston Public Library installed in 1895, with tracks laid around every level of the stack to transport books. Or the ultra-modern teletype machine and conveyor belt used to convey book requests by the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1927. Or the current book retrieval system used at the University of Chicago, which boasts a system of <a href="https://www.wired.com/2011/05/robot-powered-mansueto-library/">robotic cranes</a>.</p>
<p>Unlike Kells, I think there is a fabulous quality to the dream of an infinite library that can assemble itself in bits and bytes wherever a reader calls it into being. It sits well with the democratic dream of mass literacy.</p>
<p>It may well take an archaeologist – working a thousand years from now – a lifetime to unlock the data in our already defunct floppy discs and CD Roms. Then again, it took several hundred years of patient work before Jean-François Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822, and even longer for Henry Rawlinson to unlock the secrets of the cuneiform scripts of ancient Mesopotamia.</p>
<p>Of course, Kells’s new book is not a history of reading or writing. It is a history of books as artefacts. It tells of books of doubtful or impeccable provenance, discovered in lost libraries or inaccessible private collections, purloined by book thieves, or crazed and nefarious book collectors, or at the behest of rich or royal patrons. It is a narrative – albeit with an unfortunate, cobbled together quality – brimming with strange anecdotes about a small handful of books owned by a small handful of people; lost books yielding strange surprises, from discarded condoms to misplaced dental appointment slips.</p>
<p>Kells’s favoured haunts are the chained libraries of medieval monks, and the bawdy or scandalous collections of wealthy 18th century patrons. The <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/268">library of St Gall</a>, for example, which houses one of the largest medieval collections in the world. Or the Bodleian at Oxford, which was never intended to be an inclusive collection, but rather, as its founder Thomas Bodley put it, sought to exclude “almanackes, plaies, and an infinit number” of other “unworthy matters” which he designated “baggage bookes” and “riff-raffe”.</p>
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<span class="caption">Tourists at the Bodleian Library in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>I am a great lover of books. I have been lucky enough to while away the hours in libraries from Beijing to St Petersburg, Belgrade and Buenos Aires. But in an age of economic disparity and privatised public services – of pay walls, firewalls and proprietary media platforms, not to mention Google and Amazon – it is difficult to feel convinced by this bibliophile’s nostalgic reveries.</p>
<h2>Embodying an idea of society</h2>
<p>More than 20 years ago, when I was living in New York, eking out a living as a copyeditor and more often as a waitress, I became a regular at the 42nd Street Library (also known as the New York Public Library), on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets, a few blocks from the apartment that I shared in Midtown.</p>
<p>It was not just the size of the collection that drew me in – the 120 kilometres of bookshelves housing one of the largest collections in the world – or the ornate ceilings of the main reading room, which ran the length of a city block, with 42 oak tables for 636 readers, the bookish dimness interrupted by the quiet glow of reading lamps. I was fascinated by <a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/12/21/stack-tour">the library’s pneumatic system</a>.</p>
<p>This labyrinthine contraption, which had been state-of-the-art around the dawn of the 20th century, sent call slips flying up and around through brass tubes descending deep underground – down seven stories of steel-reinforced book stacks where the book was found, then sent up on an oval shaped conveyor belt to arrive in the reading room.</p>
<p>The pneumatic system – with its air of retro, steampunk or defunct book technology – seemed to intimate the dream of a future that had been discarded, or, at least, never actually arrived. Libraries are not just collections of books, but social, cultural and technological institutions. They house not only books but also the idea of a society.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185020/original/file-20170907-8355-1i2fdin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The main reading room of the New York Public Library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Segar/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The predecessors of the New York Public Library, the Carnegie libraries of the 1880s, were not just book stacks but also community centres with public baths, bowling alleys, billiard rooms, and in at least one strange instance – at the Allegheny library in Pittsburgh – a rifle range in the basement.</p>
<p>Earlier in the 18th century, with the rise of industrial printing technologies and the spread of mass literacy, not only libraries but as many as a thousand book clubs sprang up through Europe. They were highly social, if occasionally rowdy places, offering a space not only for men but also women to gather. Monthly dinners were a common feature. Book club rules included penalties for drunkenness and swearing.</p>
<p>So too, the fabled Library of Alexandria – where Eratosthenes invented the discipline of geography and Archimedes calculated the accurate value of Pi – was not a collection of scrolls but a centre of innovation and learning. It was part of a larger museum with botanical gardens, laboratories, living quarters and lecture halls. Libraries are social places.</p>
<h2>Lost libraries</h2>
<p>Kells’s Catalogue of Wonders is at its best when it recounts the stories of these ancient libraries, charting the accidental trails of books, and therefore ideas, through processes of translating, pirating and appropriation. And the trades and technologies of papermaking that enabled them.</p>
<p>The library of the Pharaoh Ramses II in the second millennium BCE contained books of papyrus, palm leaves, bone, bark, ivory linen and stone. But “in other lands and other times,” Kells writes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>books would also be made from silk, gems, plastic, silicon, bamboo, hemp, rags, glass, grass, wood, wax, rubber, enamel, iron, copper, silver, gold, turtle shell, antlers, hair, rawhide and the intestines of elephants.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1058&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1329&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185013/original/file-20170907-17089-4j2xvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1329&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A page from the 13th century Devil’s Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benedictine monastery of Podlažice/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One sheep, he says, yields a single folio sheet. A bible requires 250. <a href="https://www.wdl.org/en/item/3042/">The Devil’s Bible</a>, a large 13th-century manuscript from Bohemia, was made from the skin of 160 donkeys.</p>
<p>Ptolemy founded the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Library-of-Alexandria">Library of Alexandria</a> around 300 BCE, on a spit of land between a lake and the man-made port of Pharos. He sent his agents far and wide with messages to kings and emperors, asking to borrow and copy books.</p>
<p>There are many stories about the dissolution of this library: that it was burnt by invading Roman soldiers or extremist Christians or a pagan revolt – or that a caliph ordered the books be burnt to heat the waters of the urban bathhouses. Or just as likely, as Kells points out, the scrolls, which were made of fragile papyrus, simply disintegrated.</p>
<p>But the knowledge contained in the scrolls never entirely disappeared. Even as the collection dissipated, a brisk trade in pirated scrolls copied out in a nearby merchant’s district ensured that the works eventually found their way to Greece and Constantinople, where other libraries would maintain them for another thousand years.</p>
<h2>Destroyed collections</h2>
<p>One thing that Kells fails to address in his book is the problems that arise when books are excluded, destroyed, censored and forgotten. And, indeed, when libraries are decimated.</p>
<p>Any list of destroyed libraries makes startling reading: The libraries of Constantinople sacked by the Crusaders, the Maya codices destroyed by Franciscan monks, the libraries of Beijing and Shanghai destroyed by occupying Japanese forces, the National Library of Serbia destroyed by the Nazi Luftwaffe, the Sikh Library of the Punjab destroyed at the behest of Indira Gandhi, the Library of Cambodia destroyed by the Khmer Rouge.</p>
<p>More recently, thousands of priceless manuscripts were burnt in the Timbuktu library in Mali and rare books spanning centuries of human learning were burnt at the University of Mosul. Yet more book burnings have been conducted by ISIS, in a reign of cultural devastation that includes museums, archaeological sites, shrines and mosques.</p>
<p>There is also destruction for which the so called “Coalition of the Willing” must accept responsibility. Dr Saad Eskander, the Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive, reported the devastation of the library <a href="https://www.ifla.org/publications/interview-with-saad-eskander-director-of-iraq-national-library-and-archives-inla">in a diary</a> posted on the British Library website: archival materials 60% lost, rare books 95% lost, manuscripts 25% lost.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185021/original/file-20170907-8366-ftn3xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Iraqi man collects books from the destroyed Iraqi national library in Baghdad in April 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gleb Garanich/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There may be something not quite right in mourning the death of books in a time of war, as people are dying. But the problem remains that without books and documents, the history of the world can be rewritten.</p>
<p>Indeed, as Iraqi librarians sought to preserve the bookish remains of their country in the still working freezer of a bombed out Iraqi officer’s club, the US military quietly airlifted the archives of the Baathist Secret Police out of the country.</p>
<p>These are the dark places where, as George Orwell once said, the clocks strike thirteen, and Kells does not go.</p>
<p>Of course, the great irony of censorship and book burning is that books are destroyed because it is believed that they are important, and they possess a certain power. </p>
<h2>Libraries of the future</h2>
<p>In the age of the globalisation of everything – and the privatisation of everything else – libraries can and must change. It is seldom discussed that one of the great destroyers of books are actually libraries themselves, bearing cost cuts, and space limitations. But this process can be ameliorated by companies such as <a href="https://www.betterworldbooks.com/">Better World Books</a> that divert library books from landfill, finding new owners and funding literacy initiatives – you can even choose a carbon neutral footprint at the checkout.</p>
<p>Libraries, by which I mean public libraries that are free, open and accessible, will not become extinct, even though they face new competition from the rise of private libraries and the Internet. Libraries will not turn into mausoleums and reliquaries, because they serve a civic function that extends well beyond the books they hold.</p>
<p>Libraries can and must change. Quiet study areas are being reduced, replaced not only by computer rooms but also by social areas that facilitate group discussions and convivial reading. There will be more books transferred to offsite storage, but there will also be more ingenious methods of getting these books back to readers.</p>
<p>There will be an emphasis on opening rare books collections to greater numbers of readers. There is and must be greater investment in digital collections. Your mobile phone will no longer be switched off in the library, but may well be the very thing that brings the library to you in your armchair.</p>
<p>The much heralded “death of the book” has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It is about a radical transformation in reading practices. New technologies are taking books and libraries to places that are, as yet, unimaginable. Where there will undoubtedly be new wonders to catalogue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camilla Nelson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The history of the library is replete with mechanical marvels. More than collections of books, libraries are social, cultural and technological institutions that house the very idea of a society.Camilla Nelson, Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/460442015-08-24T03:43:18Z2015-08-24T03:43:18ZAfrican libraries that adapt can take the continent’s knowledge to the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92687/original/image-20150821-31370-j0w036.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman visits the Scientific Institute in Cairo, Egypt. The role of libraries is changing but they are as relevant and important as ever.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African librarians were shocked in 2013 when one of the top researchers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology claimed that he <a href="http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1983&context=iatul">no longer needed</a> the library to do his research.</p>
<p>Professor Johannes Cronje’s paper echoed an increasingly common way of thinking. Why, after all, do we need libraries when the Internet does such a good job of providing us with information?</p>
<p>But libraries are not just collection points for information. The best ones also help create it - and those which embrace this role will flourish in a completely changed world. This is particularly true for African libraries: there is more of an opportunity than ever before to bring the continent’s knowledge to the world. </p>
<h2>A dual role</h2>
<p>Libraries collect information and make it available to a particular community or communities. Some, like <a href="http://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet16#churchlibrary">church libraries</a>, specialise in collecting certain kinds of information.</p>
<p>The Internet can do exactly the same thing. Anyone can create a collection of information online and make it available to users. And who needs librarians when search engines like Google are on hand to help track down information?</p>
<p>Such technological advances mean that the traditional library is losing customers who just want to find information.</p>
<p>Libraries fulfil another crucial role, though. They help to create information. Modern libraries offer many services that help their users to put information online. Most academic libraries, for instance, have <a href="http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/national/baltimore/papers/56.pdf">repository services</a> that collate a university’s research output and make it publicly available.</p>
<p>They are extending this service to research data, which will save future researchers from collecting the same data and taxpayers from paying for it again.</p>
<p>These services are becoming common in public libraries as well, through an innovation called <a href="http://library-maker-culture.weebly.com/what-are-they.html">makerspaces</a>. Here, users can make items of information. They can create music, produce items using 3D printers or engineer complex designs.</p>
<p>In makerspaces, librarians aren’t helping users to find information from the world. They are helping users to find information in themselves. Libraries should continue to develop services that help people create information.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bd0lIKVstJg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Eli Neiburger from the Ann Arbor District Library talks about what libraries can do to survive.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a way, these “new” developments really aren’t that different from what libraries have always done. Libraries curate and disseminate information. In the past, librarians curated information from foreign creators and disseminated it to a local community. Modern librarians curate local information and disseminate it to a foreign community. The flow of information has flipped.</p>
<h2>Opportunities for African libraries</h2>
<p>African libraries have been slow to embrace this evolution. There are twice as many repositories in Asia as there are in Africa, and <a href="http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?format=gmap">ten times</a> as many in Europe. But the continent is slowly gaining ground.</p>
<p>The University of Cape Town is the first in Africa to offer a <a href="http://www.lisc.uct.ac.za/digitalcuration_mphil">Masters</a> of Philosophy in Digital Curation. Early in 2015, the University of Pretoria <a href="http://www.up.ac.za/en/news/post_2062883-south-africas-first-library-makerspace-opens-at-the-university-of-pretoria-">opened</a> up a makerspace, the first educational one on the continent. </p>
<p>The altered role of libraries is a great opportunity to showcase African knowledge. Getting information into the world is easier and cheaper than ever. African libraries need to take up the responsibility of being partners in information creation. </p>
<p>This means that policies must be altered - and, of course, that budgets must be increased. University leaders, decision makers, governments and library users need to understand and support the changes that are reshaping libraries. </p>
<p>Librarians, too, must embrace these changes. They will require new skills to support the creation of information. Many library schools are already responding to these new needs by offering advanced degrees in digital curation.</p>
<p>It will be also be important to reconsider the very physical space of a library. Paper-and-glue book collections are shrinking and, in some libraries, disappearing. These collections have long been the symbol of quiet thinking. Will libraries still be silent spaces of learning without them? How will libraries retain their users’ trust if they are turned into cool <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/09593841011069158">cybercafés</a>? </p>
<p>These are some of the tough questions that librarians must answer if they expect their funding to continue and to rise - and if they want to remain relevant well into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara Skelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>African libraries have more of an opportunity than ever before to bring the continent’s knowledge to the world. They just need to adapt their traditional roles and functions.Lara Skelly, Librarian: Research Support, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/448202015-08-19T10:06:19Z2015-08-19T10:06:19ZWho says libraries are dying? They are evolving into spaces for innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92300/original/image-20150818-12414-1qd5d4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Today's libraries are offering skill-building programs</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/knightfoundation/8122513722/in/photolist-dnL1m3-dLsVtc-8zSXYa-6nNzvL-aUfKnt-aUfJnH-aUfKae-dwVrNo-aUfHWX-82JmDP-6p8BPC-6p8C69-6p8BQL-e5uxQb-2UXRkd-w5Ceey-6p3SVD-cRkhab-7owadv-6GKHSP-6GPN4y-5ZdiB3-dnL1sf-dnKVM2-dnL1YW-gfTav-9zrcH-dnKVZn-dnKVVX-dnKW3a-9MdjWc-7E68r3-kd6Gn-4uRo5r-bUaybt-8zSYwP-6p8hEw-4y4wyj-oUcZeY-w2Dtzj-8hQyfV-cMhtsd-aUfKer-5RuGqW-7iTLCe-joV-ajp7vY-6nNzHd-6p8hy9-6p4tt8">Knight Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the expansion of digital media, the rise of e-books and massive budget cuts, the end of libraries has been <a href="http://www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/oitp/publications/policybriefs/confronting_the_futu.pdf">predicted</a> many times over. </p>
<p>And while it is true that library budgets have been <a href="http://www.ala.org/news/mediapresscenter/americaslibraries/soal2012/public-libraries">slashed</a>, causing <a href="http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/06/funding/libraries-around-the-country-under-budget-pressure/">cuts</a> in operating hours and branch closures, libraries are not exactly dying. In fact, libraries are evolving. </p>
<p>As a researcher of youth learning in out-of-school spaces, I have studied the online information habits of youth. I am currently studying how librarians are supporting teen learning and teaching coding to novice learners. </p>
<p>So, how are libraries changing and what is their future?</p>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>Traditionally, libraries provided <a href="http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/12/11/libraries-in-communities/">no-cost access</a> to books and a quiet place to read. </p>
<p>But many of today’s public libraries are taking on newer roles. They are <a href="http://dmlcentral.net/blog/crystle-martin/connecting-youth-interests-libraries">offering programs</a> in technology, career and college readiness and also in innovation and entrepreneurship – all 21st-century skills, essential for success in today’s economy. </p>
<p>Look at some of the examples of this change happening across the nation.</p>
<p>In 2014, the San Diego Public Library Central Library opened the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IDEAlabSanDiego">IDEA Lab</a>, where students can explore and learn new technology with the support of their peers. </p>
<p>The lab hires teen interns to run workshops on a variety of topics of their interests. These range from Photoshop to stop-motion animation and skill-building technology projects. </p>
<p>These interns, coming from schools with predominantly African-American and Latino students, also get to work with a librarian to plan activities that give them experience related to their career goals. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92304/original/image-20150818-12440-awgkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Libraries are becoming spaces for collaborative learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/291372743/in/photolist-rKmXZ-61J4Sx-rKq32-96hobr-96hnw8-62fvvN-pf2mYd-pweRiF-pweSUX-pwup35-pwuvXs-pwwhP2-pf243c-pf2P7d-pf33MZ-pf35AD-pf2TwL-pwwiQv-pweTTv-pf1Vga-pweTGP-puu4qW-pweUuF-pf2muN-putWt9-puu5NA-pwwfPv-pwuuyq-pf1TBt-pf2gbS-pf38GZ-pweQPe-pf37gH-pwutrA-pf2miW-pwupfE-pf2Kk5-pwePBz-pf24MD-4oTExK-62bo7r-61MTCS-62fB7J-61N3oY-61N493-61HM24-61MWMm-61N7JU-9H7jk4-6cmRQb">Jisc infoNet</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, in early 2015, librarians at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina created a “maker space” called <a href="http://www.cmlibrary.org/about_Us/in_the_news/default.asp#!/pressrelease/charlotte-mecklenburg-library/r/thinking-outside-of-the-box---idea-box--makerspace-opens-in-uptown-charlotte,c9725284">Idea Box</a>, a place where area youth are invited to learn to 3D model, 3D print, knit and code. This creates learning opportunities for the youth and develops their interests in <a href="https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/makerspaces-participatory-learning-and-libraries/">STEAM</a> (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) careers. </p>
<p>In another such example, the <a href="http://humaninterests.seattle.gov/2015/03/02/hsd-opens-summer-youth-employment-applications/">Seattle Public Library</a> started a partnership in 2014 with the Seattle Youth Employment Program. Together, they have designed curriculum to <a href="http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/?s=youth+employment+&submit=Search">build</a> digital and information literacy skills. </p>
<p>Alongside individual libraries, national organizations such as <a href="http://www.ala.org/yalsa/">YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)</a>, who strengthen library services for teens, are already making changes to what they view as the purview of the library professional. Their recent report <a href="http://www.ala.org/yaforum/sites/ala.org.yaforum/files/content/YALSA_nationalforum_final.pdf">focuses</a> on changing the role of library staff to support young people as they explore and develop career paths. </p>
<h2>Libraries for the homeless</h2>
<p>This is not all. Libraries are expanding beyond their traditional roles and reaching further into their communities. </p>
<p>Since spring 2014, the Brooklyn Public Library has been running <a href="http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2015/07/08/outreach-services-for-teen-librarians-what-some-teen-librarians-are-doing-outside-the-walls-of-libraries-2/">“transitional services”</a> that <a href="http://www.bklynlibrary.org/outreach-services/uni">focus</a> on providing programs such as “pop-up libraries” for people who are homeless, as well as opportunities for children to read books with parents who are <a href="http://www.bklynlibrary.org/outreach-services/jail-libraries">incarcerated</a>. </p>
<p>Even institutions going through budget cuts strive to maintain this component of serving the community. For example, when the Detroit Public Library had to deeply slash its budget during the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/detroit-libraries-closing-4-branches_n_1162872.html">economic downturn</a>, alongside reducing its branch hours to 40 per week, it reworked its schedule to maximize the number of evening and weekend hours it was <a href="http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/branch/main">open</a>, so as to best serve the community. </p>
<h2>Future will be service</h2>
<p>Libraries in the 21st century are going to be less about books and more about the services that library staff provide to their communities. </p>
<p><a href="http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/05/future-of-libraries/best-guesses-a-qa-with-center-for-the-future-of-libraries-miguel-figueroa/#_">Miguel Figueroa</a> of the Center for the Future of Libraries <a href="http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/future">sums</a> it up best, when he says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The library of the future, whether the physical space or its digital resources, can be the place where you put things together, make something new, meet new people, and share what you and others bring to the table. It’s peer-to-peer, hands-on, community-based and creation-focused.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystle Martin received funding from Young Adult Library Services Association/Voices of Youth Advocacy. </span></em></p>Traditionally, libraries provided a quiet space to read. Today’s libraries are taking on new roles and helping young people gain 21st-century skills.Crystle Martin, Postdoctoral Researcher , University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.