The Conservative Librarian would like to point out that being a conservative does not mean one is slow moving or resistant to change. Conservatives are all about change, but doing so in an efficient manner. And that brings us to this week's buzz: Amazon's announcement that Kindle owners will soon be able to borrow the formerly non-compatible e-books from their libraries. This has many libraries e-lated! The e-book collection, which surprisingly has taken off like gangbusters, will become even more popular now that there is a bigger market in library land! Oh, thank you Amazon and e-books, for saving us from extinction! Now that we are technologically relevant, we can go back to answering reference questions and cataloguing encyclopedias.
Well, the Conservative Librarian wouldn't break out the bubbly just yet. Don't get her wrong. She is not a book-hugger who insists that there is nothing better than feeling paper between her fingers and the sound of cracking open the spine of a brand new book. Far from it. E books are fabulous! She owns one herself and, though she is a public librarian, infinitely prefers to download a book rather than get on a waiting list for new releases from her library. So, for her, the arguments about the physical attributes of a printed novel are really a moot point. ( Something tells her a similar conversation took place between two monks discussing that Guttenberg guy's thing called the printing press. Yeah, it's a novelty and people might like it for a while, but nothing can replace the love and care that we put into illuminating our crafted tomes. It'll never catch on.). The problem is that while libraries may purchase the rights to distribute ebooks, we essentially own nothing. We did not develop ebooks, we do not have a patent on ebooks and we physically do not house any of the hardware necessary to make any transition happen. Basically we are a middle man.
What's wrong with that? Well, nothing for right now. But let's take a look at another famous middle man: Blockbuster Video.
When VCRs emerged on the market, so did video stores and they had a great niche. You no longer had to wait and hope for an award winning movie to come to television or cable. You could rent it and see it immediately for a nominal fee. It was cheaper than going to the movie theater, you could watch it as many times as you liked and if you needed to go to the bathroom you didn't have to miss anything--just hit pause.
For 25 years, this worked great. Blockbuster and other video stores were the library of visual entertainment and they were relevant and prosperous as long as there were video and DVD machines. Then, enter the digital age when technology made it possible for for videos to be directly downloaded to computers and, from those computers, viewed on television. For a while, video stores still had a place, but became more and more unnecessary as more and more homes became computerized. Oh, they tried: rent two get one free, free popcorn, guaranteed to always be in stock. But ultimately it was all about convenience and, yes, laziness. Who wants to schlep around to the video store in the pouring rain and waste gas when you can hit a button and watch a movie all without leaving your couch? Where is Blockbuster now?
Really, how long do you think it is going to take before Amazon, Overdrive and their kin realize that you can cut out the middle man and make more money that way? How long before they appeal directly to the public? How long before libraries find themselves right back to where they were? The willingness to circulate ebooks is great, but it hasn't solved the problem that public libraries have with relevance to their communities. The fact that libraries are a centuries-old institution isn't going to save them. For thousands of years, horses were the preferred means of transportation, until that thing called a car came along. We've lost the reference battle to the Internet years ago. We can no longer afford to let or hope that others will find our niche for us. We need to be proactive and find it ourselves and when we do, ride that wave high and fast with everything we've got. No more paralysis by analysis.
So much for being a slow-moving Conservative Librarian.
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