John Berry's editorial in the February 15 issue of Library Journal is brief, but it ruthlessly critiques the ways in which business-oriented management practices are destroying the foundations of the library profession. The money paragraph:
The resulting “destination” libraries resemble the cookie-cutter design of the grocery store, aimed at making sure everyone who comes in goes out with “product” (books, CDs, DVDs, or downloads). What the patron takes is of as little concern to the storekeeper librarian as it is to the supermarket manager. The success of the enterprise is measured in the number of products collected by patrons, now called “customers.” It is no longer measured in the usefulness or impact of the service on the quality of life in the community served.
Read the whole thing here. Spot on. I couldn't have said it better myself.
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http://www.slate.com/id/2184927/nav/tap3/
Cool article on new libraries. The Seattle library is awesome. Though, it's modeled after a mall.
This is the sort of stuff that makes me really pissed off. A library shouldn't look like a mall and it should give a privileged place to books, not florist shops or delis. The buildings are quite impressive architecturally but these places aren't libraries, they're something else.
Unfortunately I don't know how we can make public libraries an appealing place for people who don't have the attention span to read an actual book without further undermining the values of the profession. This makes me pretty depressed sometimes.
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