Libraries and Books

One of the things I found interesting in Eli Nieburger's video, "Why Libraries are Screwed" was the idea that libraries are marketed and identified as book places.  We had a similar discussion in my 605 class after a few students attended an un-conference at which one panelist suggested that librarians should stay focused on books.  His argument was that without books, people won't be able to identify libraries.

Personal anecdote time: A friend of mine recently moved and posted a picture of her new city's impressive library on my facebook.

Awesome aquarium is awesome.

It wasn't long before someone commented, saying "But where are the books?"

And therein lies the problem.  As library students, we've read and talked all about how there's more to libraries than books.  However most people still associate libraries with physical books, which is going to be a problem if physical books become outmoded by ebooks.  So we've established in class that libraries don't need books to survive.  The next challenge is to convince everyone else.  I'm not actually sure what the best way to do that is.  Advertising and PR departments may be able to do this, but it will probably take more than that.  It's important that people stop seeing libraries as book repositories if libraries are going to survive.