Catering to teenagers is just one response to some very big questions public libraries are facing these days. Not long ago, libraries enjoyed something of a monopoly on the public's access to information. It was a benign monopoly, of course. But closed stacks, endless lists of rules and the shushing librarian all became symbols of a stuffy order that served institutional interests. Now, the Internet is forcing libraries to change that mentality — and quickly. Today, the vast majority of information searches begin not at a library reference desk but at an Internet search engine. The troubling fact for libraries is that customers really seem to prefer the latter. A few years ago, the Online Computer Library Center asked library users to compare search engines and librarians in four areas: the quality of information provided, quantity of information, speed of conducting research and overall experience. The search engines beat librarians in every category.
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"It's fine to say that Google is Google-izing the world," says Chicago Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey, "but if you're poor and trying to apply for a job, often the only way to do it is online and the only place to do it is at the public library."
Still, the library world seems particularly obsessed with its future right now. Library conferences are abuzz with talk of "Library 2.0," a concept that boils down to the idea that libraries should offer the services that customers say they want — not what librarians wish they wanted. Meanwhile, the Urban Libraries Council has asked the futurist writer Joel Garreau to help big-city library directors imagine the library of 2020. All agree that for libraries to stay relevant in their communities — and adequately funded by government — they're going to have to adapt. The question is, how?
"If people only go to Google, or to Barnes & Noble, then what are we?" asks Laura Isenstein, a former library director in San Antonio and Des Moines who now works as a library consultant. "We have to change our role and be part of the fabric of the community beyond books. And we have to go out and ask our customers: What is it you want us and need us to be?"
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