Article Contributed on: 4/1/2009 9:24:51 AM
New technologies have a nasty habit of allowing old technologies to hang around for a few years and then killing them off. The TV didn't replace the radio and the computer hasn't replaced the book, but there is no doubt a sea change is taking place. We can date the crossing of the digital divide back to not only the micro-nization of computers, but, as importantly, the rise of high bandwidth communications and the Internet.
The defenders of the book, big-box library and newspaper are like the soldier who stands up in his foxhole on the battlefield and proclaims to the world that he is still alive. This is normally followed with getting shot between the eyes.
Hardly a day goes by without another newspaper biting the dust. Loyal readers grieve openly in public and shout, "Save My Rocky!" as a younger generation uses their parent's newspaper to line the cat's litter box, all the while twittering on their Blackberry.
You have to be living an illusion and in total denial not to see the reason digital multi-media will prevail long run. The ability to have high resolution color, digital audio, and interactive hyper-linked text is an order of magnitude by 10 above the current print technology. Whatever high-touch effects you think holding that newspaper or book also took a 55 gallon drum of harsh chemicals and a pine tree to produce. It is like moving from the horse to the auto. And, in that, cost comparison are dangerous. Once electronic reading devices gain the ability to advance learning by a magnitude of 10 the consumer will not require them to be $20. The ubiquitous cell phone is already a $300 device subsidized by the communications provider and it replaced a $30 desktop phone. Micro netbooks, laptops and all types of hand-held devices have already gone below the $500 price point that is necessary. What is missing is content and that is where I believe the library and education institutions are failing us. They argue that the same people who already have a cell phone and laptop will be hard pressed to buy an e-reader. That's not to mention a GPS in the car and large screen TV in every room in the home. Give me a break.
As of today, Google has scanned over 500,000 public domain books and nearly 5 million proprietary books. You can get them free on your laptop or netbook or Sony E-reader. If you buy an Amazon Kindle you can buy electronic books ranging from $1 to $10 and there are nearly 250,000 to pick from. You can get the Denver Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and any number of periodical delivered to your e-reader before you wake up, for less than the cost of delivery to your snow-laden sidewalk.
But, what all these books, periodicals and journals have in common is that the content is still hierarchal and linear and text dominant, in a world rapidly shifting to interactivity, hyper-text, communications, and audio-video enhanced. Electronic readers today are basically electronic page turners and an alternative means of delivering the same old content. They have not yet radicalized the content per se to speed up the learning process. But, it is around the corner.
Back in 1945, a guy by the name of Vannevar Bush wrote an article about his vision of hyper-text. It was not until the 1970s that guys like Ted Nelson began to envision what a computer might do. When Bill Gates and Steve Jobs holed up in garages during the 1970s to develop the operating systems and personal computer hardware that we use today, these "possibility" visions slowly became a reality. It was not unlike the invention of the automobile which preceded Henry Ford's mass production of the Model T by 30 to 40 years. It takes upwards of 50 years for most technologies to be accepted and pervasive throughout society.
The current director of the Douglas County Library system sees himself as a bleeding edge innovator. And, there is no doubt he took a system run out of holes-in-the-wall by volunteers and transformed it into a modern bureaucracy with a $20 million dollar budget. For that he deserves our thanks. I am sincere in that.
What is at dispute here is the role of the library system in the future. As of right now the metrics for measuring success are things Home Depot would use to measure inventory turnovers. So, we are simultaneously cutting the materials budget to deal with budget cutbacks and also getting rid of upwards of 50,000 books so the turnover rate improves. Heck, why not go down to 1 popular book and it will turn over a 1,000 times?
Other inconsistencies are appearing like cracks in the sidewalk concrete. The voters said no, not once, but twice, to building new library buildings. It was as though those voters suspected more brick and mortar and monuments to architects was not the real issue. Yet, the Library Director now announces he is creating a fund to eventually build a new building. That fund can only be underwritten by constraining the current system and moving money out of materials. Its a form of inter-generational transfer. Why should today's taxpayer, (who already said NO! twice), be forced to fund tomorrow's taxpayer's pleasure?
What has never seen the proper amount of sunshine is the nasty little secret that the bond issue for the new libraries was as much to fund operations as to fund new brick and mortar. Once the libraries were built the revenue stream was going to kick over and go to staff. And, that is the $64 issue here. The library is a labor-intensive operation with highly paid professionals all of who are equipped with an office, computer, training budget, health benefits and pension. Since most of them can retire under PERA after 50, many of them will take more out of the pension system over their remaining lives than they were paid during the years they worked. Compare the average unit costs of the Douglas County Library system and the Tattered Cover and you will see the chasm that must be crossed.
Add to all of this the fact that the library serves primarily children and adolescents. The acquisition of videos, music and children's books, along with fiction drives the economics of the Library system. The nearly 80 plus librarians in the Douglas County system is only half the resources dedicated to catering to the under 21 population. There are a-like number of librarians and resources, including vast numbers of computers in the public school system. Now, if it is the reason for Douglas County CSAP scores being higher then it is worth the investment. But, I would submit the raw material(students) and parental support have at least as much to do with it as any value added by the bureaucracy.
No one, including myself are arguing that we do any less in the area of libraries, books, e-learning and knowledge. If anything, supporters of the education system want a broader scope. We want meaningful programs to support life-long learning and citizenship. We want the library to become a foundry where authors can do the scholarship to author and publish, be it traditional books or e-learning. And, most of all, we want the depository of materials to be a growing asset, not an inventory of consumables measured based on inventory turns. I want to know that each branch has the 100 best business books and the 100 best classics of American literature. And, when those books are replaced, it would be nice if the patrons who funded them got first crack at buying them, rather than some bottom-feeding reseller organization who takes the executive director to lunch.
Perhaps making the library that "den-of-knowlege" with its musty smell and book binders being cracked is a far cry from the modern interior designer's goal to make it light and airy (by throwing away thousands of books). But, that pursuit of modernity is inconsistent with the constant cry to "books will never go away". I foresee a day when the library is a huge space with coffee tables and internet connects and there are no books. The books which have intrinsic worth will have been sold off long ago like Russian aristocrats who sell their jewelry to fund their lifestyle. Now, you might think this is one of those things which will happen long after you are gone and it is someone else's worry. I firmly believe it will happen far sooner than we are willing to admit.
Almost every day, Amazon, Google, or some other hegemonic organization announces a multi-billion dollar initiative to make every book in the World available electronically 24/7. If that is to happen in the next five years, is it conceivable that the taxpayers of Douglas County will continue to spend $25 to $40 million dollars a year maintaining warehouses of books dispensed by $80,000 a year librarians to satisfy the few Luddites in the County who are not willing to embrace the internet. I only remind you that those same people who are supposedly so poor as to need a public library are not reflected in the income demographics of the census of the County. You might also find that the same people who would never pay a user fee to take their kid to a children's program are buying $100 sneakers and cell phones for their children. Almost every high school student in Douglas County drives a car and many dart around the county in BMWs. So, I don't know what population segment the taxpayer is trying to lift up from the bottom rung of society. And, if the only way to get people to demand it is to give it away for free, then that's a heck of a socialistic model.
In closing let me remind every one of something. They say there is a layer of coal under the United States sufficient to power our energy for 500 years. That seam of coal was once a vast forest populated with dinosaurs and woolly mammoths. At some point they succumbed to a great force and enzymes turned them to coal. And,it was the biggest animals that went extinct. And, many downsized to what we have today--birds. It is hard to imagine a dinosaur becoming a bird, but that is supposedly what happened. It might be time for the library to cocoon and prepare to emerge a butterfly. After all, the caterpillar's only mission in life is to eat. He has virtually no mobility and is all body mass. The butterfly has some of the same coloration but is fundamentally reorganized at the biologic and chemical level. Transformation is different than hoping we are merely going through a cycle that will return us to the old equilibrium some day. But, to recognize that life from here on out is going to be different in the 21st century, means getting past the denial and illusion that driving into the future looking out your rear view mirror will continue to work.