Tomorrow's libraries: more than a modular telephone jack, less than a complete revolution— Perspectives of a provocateur

Abstract

The annual operating costs for traditional libraries can be shown to be greater than the cost to distributing a portable computer and related sources of electronic information to each library user in the academic environment. For public libraries, opportunity to reach the disadvantaged are inherent in this and other developments in the delivery of information. A time frame for the emergence of an information appliance—the tablet computer—capable of supporting the required information traffic, is presented and a model is developed to predict the migration of content from paper to electroform for each subject discipline. As one viable approach to library planning for the coming “new” information environment, the author suggests converting the “central library” into an “electronic information distribution center” that can support users regardless of physical location, while also incorporating automated storage and retrieval facilities to minimize warehousing costs for residual hard copy materials. The economical provision of information SERVICE is the objective; not greater staffs, collections of little used materials, and buildings.