The demise of school libraries

“Google answers in one afternoon more reference questions than all the public libraries in the United States in an entire year,” Helping patrons with reference inquiries “is not our business anymore” says Bill Ptacek director of the King County Public Library System in Washington state. 

Barbara Mantel asserts, “as a result, many librarians are being redeployed into the community, training daycare providers and parents in early literacy skills and working in public schools".

Mantel observes that “academic libraries have seen a drastic decline in reference requests but an increased demand for people space, whether to plug in a laptop, quietly study or work on group projects, a reflection of teaching trends that stress group assignments”.

“You can say that space can happen anywhere on campus, and yes it can,” says Charles Lowry of the Association of Research Libraries, “but it can't happen anywhere else with a full array of information resources from print to electronic, with expert help available from librarians and staff and in a central location. I cannot imagine that you won't see physical libraries on our campuses 10 years and probably 25 years from now.”

Mantel wonders, “should the physical library shrink as books, journals and other materials increasingly become available in digital form? What role will libraries play if e-books come to dominate the reading experience? And should public libraries be privatized in an effort to save money?”

          Mantel, B. (2011, July 29). Future of libraries. CQ Researcher, 21, 625-652.

          Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/