Metaholic Musings

E-readers are all the rage these days. From the Amazon Kindle and its electronic paper display from E Ink Corporation, to the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android operating system for smartphones, society is at a tipping point in the transition from print to digital media consumption. Mobile computing devices are closer than ever to delivering the “pleasant” experience of reading a printed book, and the imminent arrival of network-enabled (Wi-Fi AND 3G) Kindle-type devices may further hasten this metamorphosis.

Soon we will be able to fit an entire library of books in our backpack or even our pockets. Are libraries prepared for this brave new world?

Many libraries are trying to stay relevant with digital lending services for library patrons. Some organizations like the Sunnyvale Public Library are providing cardholders with  free access to e-books from multiple providers. The McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz is not only making its catalogs and collections to the Internet, but also redesigning, reorganizing and expanding its facilities to accomodate “new styles of learning, rapidly evolving ways of accessing and presenting information, a trend toward social gathering, and a shift in how libraries interact with their clientele.” Gone are the dark ages of stacks and slient studying; now are the halcyon days of server racks and conference rooms. Libraries are becoming community information centers. Even the word “library,” which comes from the Latin word for “book,” is rapidly becoming a misnomer.

But beneath the surface of this technocratic utopia, there are tremors that threaten the very foundation of the library as a public institution. On one hand, media industries–from the MPAA and RIAA to newspaper, magazine and book publishers–continue to resist the online digital “revolution” in an attempt to preserve traditional print-based business models. Some companies such as Simon & Schuster have refrained from distributing its e-books to public libraries. Others place tight restrictions on electronic content, forcing libraries to purchase multiple digital copies of an e-book and prohibiting them from lending a single copy of that e-book multiple people at the same time. Which begs the question: what is the value of an e-book to libraries and readers if it must be treated as a print book?

On the other hand, projects such as Google Books are disrupting the entire ecosystem, rousing the ire of authors, media companies and copyright holders while displacing the traditional role of the public library. The privileged position that libraries once enjoyed is withering not only because Google Books exists, but also because it is essentially a for-profit library that is being leveraged as a platform for advertising and market research. Google has the muscle to negotiate favorable terms with AP and the Writer’s Guild, but their attitude is causing companies like Simon & Schuster to tighten their grip on digital content, much to the detriment of public libraries staffed by professionals who adhere to a much higher standard of ethics and respect for intellectual property.

And beyond the content and copyrights, there is the equipment. The server, networking and storage systems needed to house large digital collections is not cheap, and neither are the IT managers who have the expertise required to maintain these systems. Most IT organizations today must spend upwards of 70 percent of their resources just to maintain the status quo. Datacenters can take up easily as much room as book warehouses and consume a tremendous amount of electrical power. Hardware and software incompatibilities create obstacles to the maintenance, migration and sharing of digital collections. And of course, there is the endless cycle of hardware and software upgrades that vendors push out in their quest to maintain high profit margins and continuous revenue growth.

So while libraries are on the cusp of a digital revolution, there are also caveats and consequences to be considered. However, there is a clear opportunity for libraries to re-assert their primacy by using this time of tumultuous change to re-invent themselves as community information centers where people can gather and interact, not only to access information but also create and exchanging new information in person and online. And if the Sunnyvale Public Library and McHenry Library are any indication of what is to come, libraries could actually save us all from the social atomization, abstraction and alienation that often accompanies new forms of media technology.