A thread over in GD got me thinking (albeit on a somewhat simple plain) about Libraries.
Think for a sec about your local library. Is it like mine? Is it an understaffed, poorly administrated place with old decor and a generally icky ‘tone’?
Now, picture your local Chapters, Indigo, Coles, WH Smith, or similar big box book store. What can’t libraries be more like that? Why can’t they have nice comfy chairs, recent ‘trendy’ magazines and a cafe bar to grab a latte?
I’d like to see my local municipality turn our libraries over to this kind of model. A coffee house / village bookstore / cyber cafe kinda place. How 'bout a Wednesday night beatnik-jazz gathering?
Here’s a thought. They should sell some magazines and light publications as well as loan them in the traditional library-like way. Why not? Blockbuster rents and sells. Some people would prefer to buy rather than wait for a hold to come in.
I just don’t understand why libraries haven’t evolved!
'Cause they’re publically [under]funded with no profit motive. They are a public resource, and you know of the “Tragedy of the Commons”, right?
That being said, some libraries are better than others; the Pasadena Central Library, for instance, has a rather nice outside deck complete with an (occasionally open) coffee stand. It has a largish reading room, though the chairs could be more comfy. It also has a great self-checkout system. The stacks, however, are on suspended floors to make more space, which is really annoying (and somewhat disturbing when a quake hits.)
Come to think of the, the Milwaukee Public Library, main branch, had a coffee/gift shop area (though I think they closed it). The branch librarys, though, were those hideous '60s grade school architecture things, though.
It’s all an issue of money. Are people really going to approve a bond issue for a new or highly refurbished library? Probably not.
But that’s just my point. Wouldn’t a library be able to generate far more money through coffee sales, magazine sales, and internet-connection rentals than they get alloted by the municipality, and whatever they collect on late fees?
They can still operate as a standard library with free check outs and the like, but I just don’t see why you don’t see many cities setting up at least one central library using this wildy successful business model.
Generate funds? Check.
Generate public interest? Check.
Use newfound funds to buy more/better materials? Check.
I work at this library, although I don’t work for it. I work in the cafe, which is a seperate business, leased to my boss.
If you’d come to visit, I’d say this is an evolved library. I love the place. Designed by the renowned architect Micheal Graves, it’s light and airy, with fantastic services.
Both Lexington, Ky. and Nashville, Tn. had excellent downtown main libraries, though the quality of the branch libraries elsewhere in the cities vary quite a bit. Nashville in particular has a huge reading room modeled after the main library in Manhattan, which looks very distinguished and academic. While there’s no cafe in the library proper, there are two right next door - you don’t even have to go outside to reach them.
Yes electronic…to a degree. Take it from a catalog librarian: the written word – on paper – will never be completely replaced by digital media (even if only because of aesthetic value, but I doubt it will come to that in our lifetimes).
Ditto what everyone else said about public libraries and funding. Why don’t they provide cushy, comfy chairs? The public messes them up, and there’s no funds to replace them. Why don’t they become more commercial and make some money? Lots of reasons, including: 1) It requires more staff, 2) smaller cities can’t support the required administration that would accompany such an undertaking (library directors are trained as librarians, not sales marketers), 3) it would go against a public library’s core values and mission to make knowledge free and accesiable to all those who seek it.
I would also like to see libraries become more inviting, metropolitan, technological, and innovative. But the voting public doesn’t seem to be willing to put their dollars where their mouths are. The public library I worked at for six years – the one who has stacks so full that the overflow section in the back room matches the browseable collection on the floor, the one where random ceiling tiles can be heard falling off and hitting the floor next to a startled patron, the one who has a reference librarian that does triple duty as a cataloger and desk clerk since more staff can’t be afforded – was recently turned down for a bond to renovate and expand, for the tenth year in a row.