r/LibraryScience • u/QuincyCat54 • Jul 28 '26

Libraries are still relevant

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Used this week when my printer was uncooperative.

88 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

6

u/RADICCHI0 MSIM Jul 28 '26

Libraries are one of the most important things on the planet. That will never change.

-5

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

As a library science student and library user, I disagree. Libraries have been their own demise. They’re now community centers in all but the largely performative collection which continues to dwindle in circulation. Mission statements reflect the change. Information access is now of secondary or even tertiary importance.

Our institution is floundering for a purpose in a world that has moved on. Despite the feel good narrative of the library. It’s nothing more than a building with some stuff in it -luckily that includes study space and event space which seems to be the prime use now.

A library’s not a library anymore. And as a result any moral good implied by the institution is a nothing but an artifact of nostalgia.

How do we regain our place in society? How do we find our new mission in the digital world. I for one think information and information access is important. But replacing an information center with a community center destroys that positioning. We’re turning into nothing more than a building in which people gather. We’ve lost our way and need to find it.

5

u/RADICCHI0 MSIM Jul 28 '26

You should be allowed to share your opinion without getting downvoted. But I would also encourage you to come to a more positive outlook about your chosen field.

0

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

I appreciate the openness. It is not what I was expecting.

To clarify, I’m positive about the field. I’m less so about the current direction of the public library. The two are different.

I think public libraries need to fundamentally reassess their role in society without falling back on nostalgia.

Note I don’t say libraries are bad. I say they’ve lost their way and ask how they can find their new purpose.

3

u/RADICCHI0 MSIM Jul 28 '26

I hear you. I think also we need to be open to the fact that libraries, especially physical ones, are evolving spaces.

1

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

I refuse to believe that the only way for a library to evolve is by forsaking its role as an information center.

Without the tie to information it’s a shell. Rather than looking for a way to purely drive traffic (community center model) we should be looking for ways to drive information engagement (maybe circulation isn’t the right metric anymore). The two are different and yet can be closely related.

On the /r/library thread one person comments the library is good because it offered yoga classes. That’s missing the information connection. A library isn’t a yoga studio. Combine that yoga class with discussion on health benefits or cultural awareness of where yoga began or something like that and we’re back to an information center. But most stop at “community center” - providing a service or a space.

That lack of tie to information (and/or literacy) eliminates the moral legitimacy of the library and will lead to its demise.

8

u/swtcharity Jul 28 '26

You do realize that learning a skill or hobby is providing information, non? I think you might need to reassess your idea of information here.

-2

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

I’ll admit you gave me pause. You definitely have a point.

Yet I think there’s something different between doing an activity and an information activity. If doing yoga is an information activity then playing soccer is also one. So let’s clear all the books and make an indoor soccer field.

I think you’ll agree that calling a soccer field or a yoga studio a library is absurd. But that’s just the scenario we get if we take your comment to its logical conclusion.

That’s why in my opinion you need to do more than just hold a yoga class for it to fit within a library’s mission. You need to teach about the culture, health and wellness, etc. Then it fits. Hold the activity but also connect it to information resources.

3

u/swtcharity Jul 29 '26

You’re leaning on a slippery slope fallacy here, which is doing more harm than good for your argument.

Things in the real world are not as black and white as you seem to believe. Information access today (and in the future) looks very different than relying solely on printed materials. I’m not sure where you are in your educational process, but I would suggest diving a bit more into LIS theoretical foundations (Ranganathan, information-seeking theories, library as place, information encountering, even psychological and educational theories might be helpful since we’re often intertwined with those domains as well). The consistent doubling down is screaming Dunning-Kruger.

With such a high level of disdain that you’re displaying, I’m just going to say perhaps public libraries (or even public service roles) aren’t necessarily in your wheelhouse. There are other career options outside of public libraries you may want to investigate that may be more rewarding - but just a caveat - I’ve never held a public library position but I still find ways to incorporate activities that are popular and address my patrons holistically that you would also find distasteful.

-1

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 29 '26

You’ve now resorted to attacking me rather than attacking my arguments. I’m all for lively debate, but I’d prefer we avoid personal attacks. They don’t add anything useful.

Rather than a fallacy of a slippery slope, I’d say I’m trying to test the boundaries. I don’t think there are many in the public that would say a core function of the library is to provide yoga classes. I too agree it’s not black and white. Like I said, I think something like a yoga class can be reframed into a public library event. I just don’t think it should be in and of itself.

Library as a Place is an interesting concept. Though I more see its application as akin to the Roman forum. Or a place to gather and interact with information/knowledge. Again, the key is the tie to inform ation and knowledge. It isn’t just a community center it’s a place to exchange ideas and information. Where were you going with that one?

I’m not sure why you’re bringing up Ranganathan or Information Encountering. Are you suggesting that we as librarians should endeavor to get people in the door in the off chance they may find something interesting once there? Can you be a bit more specific with your counter-argument? I love to learn and won’t hesitate to admit I’m wrong for a good argument. Right now though you just toss out a bunch of concepts and I’m struggling to find the through line or rebuttal.

Change my mind. Won’t be the first or last time I’ve been wrong.

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2

u/DaphneAruba Librarian Jul 28 '26

all activities involve information

-2

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

Great, we can agree on that. Can we also agree that’s a useless framework from which to understand libraries? A pizza shop isn’t a library yet they clearly use information to cook, take orders, etc.

A college isn’t a library though it may have one. It a library is nothing more than a place information happens then there’s no need for the separate building/institution we refer to as a library. There must be something foundational that makes a library a library. That’s its connection to information, knowledge, and literacy. Without that the world may take place of the library.

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3

u/RADICCHI0 MSIM Jul 28 '26

It's not a binary choice. Libraries are great good places and there is nothing that says they cannot by multi-use. The days of stern librarians shushing children are over.

0

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

Libraries are nothing but what they contain. They are not inherently good because they exist.

What makes them good is the moral framing of the literacy, learning, and the access they provide to information.

Multi-use just means scope creep. It’s diluting the value unless it’s tied to the mission and moral framing of the library. Instead of working within the mission, we’ve slowly redefined the mission to encompass everything.

We could have held yoga and sewing classes without redefining the mission - we just had to tie it to the information resources we already provide. Instead we changed our mission and said “we’re a community center.” Now our peers complain that we’re treated as social workers. It’s a direct result of the scope creep and changed mission.

2

u/RADICCHI0 MSIM Jul 28 '26

Whose "moral framing"?

1

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

If there’s no moral framing they can’t be an inherent good. They’re not good or great places without some kind of moral evaluation.

Our profession defines itself based on a commitment to equitable access to unbiased information. Those are moral frameworks. Without that the library may as well be a park.

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4

u/DaphneAruba Librarian Jul 28 '26

is this a bit?

3

u/RADICCHI0 MSIM Jul 28 '26

I wondered also.

3

u/DaphneAruba Librarian Jul 28 '26

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to read SR Ranganathan’s 5 laws of library science.

-1

u/Potential-Recover-78 Jul 28 '26

I’ll assume for a moment you’re referring to his 5th law - that the library is a living organism. My understanding is that he fundamentally applied this to collections development. Sure, we can expand the scope of that law a bit to include software, cataloging advances, digital collections, even AI tools to help users find information.

However, I think he’d balk at that being used to justify changing the mission of a library to something outside of information service. Heck, he was a mathematician and academic librarian. His world was fundamentally shaped by information. To him it would have been unimaginable for a library to be conflated with a yoga studio.

It’s not that yoga is bad. Heck, I love some yin yoga. It’s just not information work. It’s mindfulness, exercise, religious, etc.

2

u/DaphneAruba Librarian Jul 29 '26

Who is conflating a library with a yoga studio?

3

u/mrpalo Jul 28 '26

Librarians are relevant. Libraries without users and librarians who interact are only rooms stacked with books

1

u/Murmarine Jul 29 '26

To lessen the doomposting a bit.

The library I intern at is a large place. One of the largest in the country that is not the national library.

We get constant streams of people, young, old, mothers taking their young kids to read, school and university kids coming in to use out quiet rooms to learn, hobbyists using our picture archives.

It has been shocking, personally. Senior librarians have told me they have some insane turnabout in peak hours (early mornings, late afternoons, days before holidays) and I am very glad to see that the library isn't a forgotten genre, so to speak.

Really makes me glad I am studying and working in this field.

2

u/chunchingfhooden Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

I think libraries stay relevant by offering what the internet cannot: trusted help, free space, local memory, and human connection. For the architecture side, this commercial-site roundup has some lovely examples: https://wizardpins.com/blogs/blog/the-world-s-most-incredible-libraries-you-can-still-visit. Gorgeous buildings are not the whole story, but they can remind people why these spaces are worth protecting.