Why We Invest in Libraries

Every great library contains a paradox. It is simultaneously a collection of materials in the community and a platform for what it will discover. Systems thinking includes the catalog, the collection, the quiet carrels, and many different spaces and services a library offers.  Each service element exists in relationship to the others, and to the institution and community it serves. The question facing community leaders: mayors, county, executives, presidents, provosts, and library directors today is not whether to invest in libraries. It is how to think about that investment with sufficient clarity and ambition to make it count.

That question requires systems thinking…

From Library Technology to the Library of Things

The librarians who worked the card catalogs understood something essential: the value of a library is not located in any single card. It is the collection of shared knowledge and access to it. Shared cataloging systems gave libraries access to a far larger collection, making research even better. Interlibrary loan networks multiplied the reach of modest budgets. Discovery layers made the invisible visible.  The development of Library Technology and the Library of Things required systems thinkers.

Today, we need to be system thinkers.  Life has grown more complex as we simplify our interfaces with apps and technology. Collections now span print volumes, e-book subscription packages, streaming media, data sets, maker equipment, and what librarians have begun calling the library of things.  These are circulating objects that range from scientific instruments to seed libraries to virtual reality headsets. Each format carries its own acquisition logic, its own preservation requirements, its own demand curve. The question of what belongs in a library collection is no longer self-evident, and that is precisely why collection development policy needs a north star.

 

Defining the North Star

When we ask community leaders to think big about libraries, the answers converge on a few interesting themes: education & success, access & productivity, and institutional & cultural identity. These are not abstract concepts. They are measurable behaviors that have outcomes, and they provide the framework for collection development.

A north star for libraries might be stated simply: the library exists to reduce the friction between a user and the knowledge they need, at every stage of their independent and intellectual life.

Planning, Programming, Phasing, and Budgeting

Systems thinking becomes operational through the planning process. A library master plan that includes a programmatic framework: a clear articulation of the spaces, services, collections, and staff required to fulfill the library’s mission — is part of the plan. It helps define the vision.

The programming process begins with three variables that Aaron Cohen Associates has applied across more than fifty years of library consulting:

1. seating
2. collections
3. staff

These three elements define the capacity and service level of any library. They are the inputs from which space requirements, budget projections, and phasing strategies are derived.

What Public Leaders Said

When community leaders are invited to think about their local library’s potential, they consistently return to the question: how can I make a library that is a community center and learning space? Not a warehouse for books. Not a study hall for teens, but a community center.

• The library is a place where the community’s values are made tangible.
• A place where universal access is provided, and inquiry is supported at every level of education.
• A place where the act of learning is treated as worthy and serious investment in space, staff, and resources.

That vision is achievable.

Systems thinking is the discipline that holds all of this together. It insists that a decision about shelving capacity is also a decision about study space.

• That a decision about e-book licensing is also a decision about print collection depth.
• That a decision about staff configuration is also a decision about the user experience at the reference desk, the access services desk, and the learning sapces.
• It requires a planning process grounded in honest assessment of current conditions, a programmatic framework that translates institutional goals into spatial and service requirements, and a phasing strategy that builds toward the long-term vision without waiting for perfect conditions.

The north star does not change. The library exists to serve the people who use it, in support of the community that sustains it. Every planning decision, every budget line, every collection development policy should be evaluated against what we call the library space program.  When public and cultural institutions build libraries. We need to make it worth the investment.