Book Review: Library 2020: Today's Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow's Library

Abstract

Library 2020: Today's Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow's Library. Edited by Joseph Janes. Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow, 2013. 161 p. $45.00 paperback (ISBN: 978-0-8108-8714-5). Librarians, despite inherently conservative nature of their role in preservation of knowledge, spend a considerable amount of time looking forward. Joseph Janes, chair of University of Washington's Information School and longtime American Libraries columnist, has brought together a variety of thinkers to answer question, library in 2020 will be--. Participants were selected by Janes from among his friends and people [he] admire[s] a great deal (v). The year 2020 was selected as being enough out that some exciting things might well have happened, but not so far out as to have to resort to shiny-jump suit and hovercar predictions left over from 1965 about 2000 (v). The selections are organized into six sections along thematic lines. These sections include Stuff, People, Community,.... Place, Leadership and Vision, and Janes's own thoughts in a section titled My Turn. Most of selections blur these boundaries, but their placement accurately reflects main thrust of each essay. The Annoyed Librarian opens discussion with a dystopian image of a library world where collections are no longer available to lend. She foresees a future where e-book, video, and music licensing becomes so restrictive that distribution of these items is impossible. Kristin Fontichiaro follows by suggesting that 'libraries can no longer count on describing themselves as repositories for stuff' (7). She goes on to describe even more vibrant future in 2020 in which libraries are makerspaces where community members come together to learn from each other and create. The final two essays in this section echo these themes as Elisabeth Jones describes effect of large-scale book digitization projects on library's role as book warehouse and changing role of librarians within this regard. Clifford Lynch reminds readers of potential barriers to access that these changes might entail as libraries shift to greater licensed and fewer owned collections. The second section deals with most important resource in any library: people. Sarah Houghton suggests a future where libraries are staffed and managed by technologically sophisticated individuals whom she describes as benign geek librarian overlords (35). In his essay, Stephen Abram posits that the library in 2020 will be everywhere (41). He goes on to describe changing roles of librarians as they spend more time delivering programs and providing individual assistance to patrons. He too emphasizes that days of library as book repository are at end. Courtney Greene considers a wide range of possibilities, but comes back to what she considers the enduring value of our work, which lies in serving and supporting our communities (53) regardless of how things might change technologically. Like Abram, Marie Radford sees library in 2020 as being accessible from anywhere via mobile apps of increasing sophistication, and like Houghton she sees a need for librarians to become technological leaders. James Rosenzweig closes section by describing his vision of library as an information base camp and librarians as guides (63). …