Hi Don,
The future of libraries is what Chuck is saying. I would say in brief: Google Books plus EBSCO. (Although I don't like both for the limited options they offer me.) Then the problem is about systems of search and retrieval.
But your clients evidently experience a problem. What is it? Is it real? How can we help them? Should we redefine their problem? Or just help them something to continue working on the problem they perceive and they worry about?
A few thoughts:
About the building: We can use them for something. The question is important only for the transitional period before all books go digitally accessible. The journals are digitally accessible for a long time. The problem with books is with the copyright institution and how to update it for a digitized world. We both need to remunerate great minds for great books and provide the information to the users. I should not go in more detail about this.
About the institution and the facility (this is more than the building): It has to be envisioned completely, considering that the new library will be a website with extensive user support. No buildings, no paper, no people running around. People might be in central international office or regional offices or local offices, whichever you prefer. But the website will be globally accessible, which basically makes it international.
What shall we do with the librarians? Well, some of them will go to work in the Central Office. Maybe 0.000001% of all librarian? Let's not go into detail.
After the advent of the automobile what did we do with all carpenters who made carts? For some time, they build car bodies just like they build carts. Then someone completely redesigned the car bodies, made them from metal, and -- forget about the carpentry profession. I hope the carpenters found jobs in building construction industry, furniture manufacturing, or other industries. I have to update my knowledge in history of technology. I was working on this staff more than 30 years ago.
How can we use the skills for contemporary librarians to organize community events? Well, why should we bother about retooling librarians. The society should create an institution for such purposes. Many professions morph or change. Many people will need resources to retool. It is high time to help everyone who needs retooling in order to build a just and prosperous society.
By the way, if you have started the project about the future of university libraries, you can also try to muse about the future of university bookstores. Our campus bookstore is selling Apple computers and sweatshirts. The largest clothing store in town. And the largest Apple store in the county. I can't believe it. And they still call it bookstore. Books are ordered online. Students drive to a nearby warehouse to pick their packages.
In the history of architecture, we have multiple examples of transitional periods of using structures or building types. We can find examples. The engineers used pig iron for their columns and continued making the capitals like in Ancient Greece. Actually, much faster -- they make them from cast iron. Even when the steel structures came, the architects continued detailing capitals with gypsum or plaster. It took more than 100 years to see that all that was not necessary and to invent Modernism. And 100 years after the advent of modernism, the general public still loves gypsum capitals on steel columns. Is it a crazy World or retarded World?
I hope this doesn't happen with libraries and bookstores. Selling T-shirts and calling the store Bookstore is an indicator for impaired thinking. Sometimes I wonder am I crazy or the World is crazy. It is so strange to me.
If your project is redefined as the transitional use of library buildings and personal, until the bright digital future really takes place, then this is a good question. But should we define the project this way, even when university presidents and city mayors see it this way? Do we have obligations as facility programmers/briefers to help our clients see what they actually need and what they don't need? Too much participation is bad for the clients. Actually, I am wrong here --the wrong way to participate is bad. We risk of following the clients and amplifying their confused thinking is really great.
Just a few ideas. I am not sure whether you will like them, but the librarians would not like them. They have to keep their positions, the library science programs, and the profession as a whole. Right now they survive as event organizers, learning commons managers, and tutors for failing students. I not sure this is a library and these people are librarians. And I am not sure this is the future of libraries. The library is in the past, just like the brick and mortar bookstore. We need to invent new institutions with new professionals to take care of emerging human needs. There is no question that new needs are emerging. The question is what needs and how to satisfy them, with what resources and what kind of professionals.
Best wishes,
Lubomir
Lubomir Popov, Ph.D., FDRS, IDEC, CSP,
Professor, Interior Design Program Coordinator
Bowling Green State University
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419.372.7935
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Don Norman
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2017 6:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Future of Libraries
Um.
Chuck
Nice answer to the wrong question. That strikes me as research on information retrieval. The Library is NOT a research organization: this is NOT what libraries do.
Yes, researchers use libraries, but that is different. (Actually, I almost never use the physical library: I access journals through the internet, often only going to my university library via the internet because that way journals are free: the library has paid the access fee. For this, they don't need that big massive building.
What you describe is the kind of research that Google, Microsoft, and others are already doing. Libraries do not have the funding nor the proper people for this. And it is not in their mandate.
What you are describing is research that takes place in schools of Information and in departments of computer science.
--
So my question remains: What is the role of a library, with its expensive buildings and facilities, and its large collection of bo0oks, in today's University.
---
You may all disapprove of this statement, but nonetheless it is true:
Most University scientists do not use libraries. They keep up to date through journals, conferences, and personal correspondence and mailing lists.
What is the role of the library for them? Note that this has been true for the past many decades. In my entire scientific career of six decades, I think I have used University Libraries perhaps 5 times. (Does that mean I am not a scholar?)
Scientists, on the whole, do not care about the old history of the field:
they care about today's cutting-edge work. For this, they do not use the library
-- ask your librarian how many physicists or engineers come to visit.
Don
On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 3:11 PM, CHARLES BURNETTE < [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Don and colleagues,
>
> Here are some thoughts responding to Don’s request.
>
> What is needed is an approach to the organization of information in
> libraries that allows anyone to describe a subject, problematic
> situation, need or concern of interest to them, and then have a
> systematic, and easily learned way to access relevant information and
> to develop their thoughts and understandings regarding it. The
> subject, situation, or object of thought should be determined by the
> thinker, their personal background and knowledge should be allowed to
> subjectively and adaptively influence interpretations, intentions, and
> goals, individually or in collaboration with others. Subsequent
> development adaptation and analysis should remain linked to original
> queries. In other words, libraries should use Design Thinking to
> develop ways to access and use information that are more user oriented and responsive to their needs.
>
> Research to develop this approach should be open to users and engage
> them in determining ways that are most helpful to and effective for
> them. The library should become a laboratory for discovering how to
> adapt itself to evolving ways for applying information and information
> technology of various kinds. Design Thinking should be a key building
> block in this effort.
>
> A Theory of Design Thinking is the source of these thoughts and has
> been used extensively in basic education, teaching. and research,
> including the design of systems to support designing. Four resources might be useful:
> the website idesignthinking.com for education. Papers on *A**n
> Interdisciplinary Graduate Program for Design Education and Research,
> A Role Oriented Approach to Problem Solving, and The Advanced Driver
> Interface Design and Assessment Project, all available at
> independent.academia.edu/charlesburnette
> <http://independent.academia.edu/charlesburnette> *
>
>
>
> *Good luck Don!Chuck*
>
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