by Kristine Lloyd

I’m not sure I have ever considered myself a sherpa before reading Seth Godin’s post on The future of the library, but I kind of like the sound of that. I can help my patrons climb the Everest of information out there. That seems pretty noble, doesn’t it?

Marketing guru and chrome-dome sage, Godin is among the many who like to speculate on what the future library will look like. He’s got the standards in there: just a smattering of books, lots of computers and the uber-hip coffeehouse vibe. He makes some salient points. To our battle for ebook lending, he says, why bother. Godin points out that “librarians that are arguing and lobbying for clever ebook lending solutions are completely missing the point. They are defending library as warehouse as opposed to fighting for the future, which is librarian as producer, concierge, connector, teacher and impresario.”

His metaphors for our profession are endless, and they are all quite lofty, but the prodigious praise seems slightly patronizing, especially when he insinuates that we are merely standing watch over our vast warehouses of materials. It’s not a fair comparison when we are already pushing the boundaries of information access. Most libraries are no longer warehouses of books and documents, rather they are already information nexuses. The New York Public Library just announced an online magazine application for iPads, the Bibliophon, which combines essays, photos and documents related to selected subjects, like the current issue on the 1939-40 World Fair. There’s also the Harvard Library Innovation Labaoratory which is creating software like a tweet-feed to announce new library acquisitions. And then of course there are all of those libraries out there like Yale, digitizing their collections and making them freely available to the public. In my opinion, the future that Godin describes is already here.