21st Century Library Ideas

I attended a Webjunction webinar today that discussed Ideas for the 21st Century Library. It was presented by Kim Bolan Cullin and Rob Cullin. Here are some bullet points of their presentation, which focused on library space and library services.

Space:

• What are you currently putting money into that you shouldn't be?
• what can 'go' so you can make room for new; ie fewer and smaller physical collections
• create a space where people want to be
• move toward a mixed use facility and away from the more 'traditional' library
• no more computer training labs
• move away from computer pods where people use the internet and check out laptops instead
• self service and lots of signage so library users can navigate on their own
• no library jargon

Service:

• no more big service desks
• small service kiosks that are non-cluttered and mobile
• eliminate barriers between you and the library user
• provide drive-up service
• provide vending-type branches where you can select a book from a book vending machine
• provide uncommon collections for borrowing like hand and power tools, cake pans, jello molds, portable electricity meters, fishing equipment
• provide space for digital creativity where the library provides the tools for users to create their own audio and video projects
• don't restrict cell phone use; embrace the technology by creating mobile websites

One of the statements made during the presentation that really rings true is:

"when you walk in the library - everyone's a librarian"