What Should a Library Be?

What do you think of when you think of a library? If you grew up at a certain time, you might envision something like this scene from The Music Man.

Most of you students have probably never seen that strange filing cabinet in the background. That's where the card catalog is stored (yes, for holding index cards). Ask your older teachers sometime how long it used to take to do research.

Actually, a lot of the things in the scene probably seem anachronistic. Even the books. Hot take: most of the information that we use is not stored in books. On a daily basis, if I am looking for information, I use Google. I don't go find an encyclopedia (even if I knew were to find one. I must admit, I do sometimes miss my family's old World Book and Childcraft sets). In fact, even the books that I do read are mostly on the Kindle. An ebook is:

Searchable
Portable
Readable in the dark
Able to change font size and style

According to Amazon, I own 490 ebooks. Plus, I can access thousands more from my library. What do we need all the physical books for? (We'll always need some books. I'll make a later post about that).

Like it or not, libraries in their traditional form are not the necessary part of a community that they once were. They must be (and increasingly are) more than just a repository for books. Librarians must be (and increasingly are) more than just someone who will check a book out to you.

As an example, I saw a great library this last weekend during one of our Adventure Time drives around Texas (it's a cool hobby; I'll explain it in a later post too). We ended up in Boerne, hoping to join in the Dickens Christmas festivities. Not only was it raining, but the crowds were huge (I don't like crowds). We stopped in at the Patrick Heath Public Library to let the storm pass and saw all kinds of great things.

Lots of green space

So much natural light

Inside and outside reading spaces

Another really cool feature is their Library of Things. You can check out board games, cooking supplies, or a metal detector!

Library of Things

They also have a packed calendar of events. Clubs, fitness classes, community parties, etc.

If you're in the area (and why wouldn't you be at some point. The Hill Country is awesome), you should stop by.

Of course, your own local library has a lot of these things as well. I'll always have a soft spot for the Round Rock Library. It has changed locations twice since I was a kid, but some of the employees are still there.

My mom used to take us on weekly fieldtrips there (she had a home daycare).

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