Physical v. e-Library: Inflection Point?

I was in a local WLN Library on an evening recently to attend an adult program and was in and out of the programming room a couple of times, passing through the main Library space. During those outs, I observed not one single patron in the stacks, in the magazine section, at the circulation desk, or anywhere else. There is, other than for programming, never a patron swarm, but this took me a little by surprise anyway. It has led me to reflect anew, and maybe more seriously this time, about whether traditional Libraries are well enough focused on present and future public needs, and whether Boards are addressing strategic plans and financial realities in a truly meaningful way. Are public Libraries at an inflection point?

My instinct, based on a fair amount of Board and corporate experience, is that they are. But, the question of what are actual physical space and staff needs versus virtual capacity may be not enough front and center. So let’s think about that.

In recent articles, I have referenced certain, sometimes specialized, on-line, resource assets, from Power Library for all sorts of excellent reliable content, to the NAACP’s reference Library about Black experience in American life, to Major League Baseball’s player records (now incorporating Negro Leagues data), and even to Lexington, KY’s Keenland Library for thoroughbred horseracing history.

The truth is that you do not have to enter another physical space outside your home to access any of these resources. Public Libraries cannot easily compete for your attention in their physical space when you have virtual space at your keyboard fingertips.

Even for browsing bookshelves by subject and author, you can often do better on-line within the Westmoreland Library Network catalogue than simply browsing on the floor at the local Library, because you get to see a full countywide collection, rather than just that of your local Library’s physical collection. And, WLN public libraries have catered for years to a growing interest in e-books by offering them as part of collection.

This evolution to digital is not unique to Libraries. Many of you pay bills on-line, for example, and are increasingly encouraged to do so. There is even a realization, at the PA state level, that the transition to digital empowers some but disadvantages others who cannot keep pace by themselves. At the PA Broadband Development Authority’s web site, for example, there have been postings for 2024 grants for building up broadband infrastructure and for procuring laptops. The PA Department of Labor and Industry, as described in previous articles here, is promoting digital literacy grants for workforce development. All these grant opportunities are open to Libraries, though the grantors are not traditional sources of awards for public Libraries.

What does all this suggest? Two things: (1) The way people access information for work needs or pleasure is changing whether one likes it or not, and those ways are not public space-dependent; (2) There are grants being offered to help Libraries and the public in transition, otherwise called opportunities.

My take is that public Libraries have to even more actively face the moving target of balancing realistic physical space needs v. genie-out-of-the-box virtual trends, possibly at an inflection point. After all, is that not the way of the world in a thriving economy?