OpenLibrarianship: A framework discussion

From PLN

Editor's note: This essay expands and refines A call for OpenLibrarianship, partly in response to my opening comment here.

Originally appeared in slightly different form as a March 21, 2008 post] at Thoughts from Carl Grant.

by Carl Grant, published March 21, 2008

My respect for Walt Crawford is older than many librarians in the field today and therefore I’m pleased that he found my post about OpenLibrarianship interesting and thought provoking...:

(quotes "Interesting possibilities within a flawed framework" in full)

After reading his comments, and in the spirit of this political season, there are a few points I’d like to discuss:

First, I think it is important to note that I did not advocate anywhere that libraries close their physical locations nor stop their role as disseminators of “stories.” I’m every bit as much a believer in libraries as Walt and, in fact, admire his writings on this topic (I find they do give balance). However, I will say that I think those in the library profession define “Information” way too narrowly. Is it not possible to view libraries as information pathways to the discovery of resources whether they’re physical or digital? While some people will still go to physical libraries, younger generations are spending much more time on their digital devices than in physical libraries. In the digital world, the way people will find those “stories” will be via digital information. Plus, where does it say that information is only nonfiction? Is a digital representation of a fiction book a story or information? When we do print-on-demand of a digital fiction work, have we delivered a story or information? Again, if we accept a community definition of the term, we can go to Wikipedia and find information described:

Information as a concept bears a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation. [Emphasis added]

Now, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t always think the same as other librarians (even though I am one). But I personally can (and do) find plenty of room in that definition to encompass both fiction and non-fiction, digital and analog.

Second, are my suggestions only feasible for large libraries? Again, maybe that’s true given traditional thinking about libraries. But I would argue, as I do in the original article, that the concepts of community apply here and that by libraries involving the larger community of users in collaborative ways, these ideas become achievable. Too much of the thinking of librarians is still within silos today. Tearing down those silos and embracing community forces (which sometimes exist, in part, within the current national professional organizations and associations), honed with some focus, could achieve a huge amount of what I proposed as starting ideas. The key to making things feasible is, as always, not to look for ways to make excuses for not achieving them, but to find new pathways to achieve them. One of the points of the post is to hopefully awaken us to the fact that we now have new pathways available.

Third, why can’t we achieve “active community involvement” with libraries? I would argue that this is precisely because we’ve not yet seized this opportunity to reposition ourselves on the digital landscape and thus, have slipped from the view of those who are most active on that frontier. If you want bloggers to comment and OPAC users to review, you have to make your location one that draws attention, not only from them but also their peers. Let’s remember, it is about community. They won’t participate in these locations if they don’t perceive that this is where the community is located, because part of what they want in return for their participation is the sharing, collaboration and exchange of ideas that happens when that exists.

It is also important to realize that with new generations come inherent behavioral patterns. Thus we have “Baby-Boomers”, “Gen-Xer’s” and now “Millienials,” each of whom behave very differently. I saw a recent library survey done at the University of Alberta and one fact that caught my eye was that the average responder's age was 44 years of age (on a college campus!). Hmmmm. What do you think the average age is for the user of Facebook (34, according to this site), MySpace or even Amazon? This is precisely why I say you have to extend your library services into these new frontiers to reach new communities of users. If we’re expecting Baby-Boomers and average library users to suddenly behave like Millenials, I think we’re deluding ourselves. Libraries need to change, need to embrace community and meet these newer generations on their own turf if we want these generations to embrace libraries and librarianship in return.

Finally, while I admire Walt’s pithy point on Maurice Line’s forecast, I do think we need to consider a few additional things:

Just last year in October, the Future Exploration Network and What’s Next groups developed an extinction timeline that shows libraries being extinct by the year 2019. So, this forecast hasn’t gone away.
Libraries, in one form or another, have been around for at least 4,000 years, dating back to roots in the Mesopotamia times and regions. When talking about something that has existed 4,000 years or so, a forecast, whether dating 25 years in age or just last October, is still fresh material when properly placed in perspective. Of course, on the other hand, you could say if we’ve been around that long, we’re not likely to disappear anytime soon.

Much of this misses the overall point of the post, which is not that I think libraries will disappear, but question the form libraries will exist in going forward. I frequently look at the path libraries are on and wonder if archival functions are the future.

The ultimate point of the post is to simply say that we have new tools in our toolbox and that by embracing these, we can engage in the new shapes and flows of societal forces and that by layering those forces on information (including “stories” in my definition) librarianship could hold a far more vibrant and important role.

A call for OpenLibrarianship - The article that started this discussion.
Future catalogs: food for thought - While not directly related, Eric Lease Morgan's challenging set of possible new functions for library catalogs does relate to new attitudes in libraries.
Generational notes includes some comments on generational differences.
The age of librarians and On appearances and legitimacy offer two perspectives on generational issues in academic libraries.