The Library of Birmingham's bright vision for the future

Since the Google books/copyright situation has been resolved, at least for now baring court appeals, I'll address "Rewriting the Book: On the Move with the Library of Birmingham".

The whole piece did leave me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth due to the fact that it felt like a commercial for a library.  This isn't surprising given that it was written by the assistant director for culture on the Birmingham City Council.  A promotional piece is essentially what it was intended to be.  That being said, I find myself thinking that it was very one-sided in its emphasis on the mobile technology side of the new offerings.  I have read about this new library in Birmingham before, and honestly the most exciting part of it is not that I can use my mobile phone to access information from it, but that the entire library experience could be enriched by the new experiences that the library will be providing.  The fact that they call it "Birmingham Library and Archives Services" is promising, mainly for the latter part of that title.  Municipal archives are criminally underused, and the integration of it with the larger library whole is to be commended.  I am impressed by the fact that they are planning on making use of library web space to give the archives a digital presence, which should serve to entice patrons in to use the physical items more often.  Often archives are a bit of a hidden collection and need help seeing the light of day.

Of particular note is the graphic explaining their concept of "The 5 libraries of LOB Digital".  This breaks down the various roles that the hope the library will play.  It includes the library as a space, as a collection of materials, as a facilitator of community knowledge sharing, a resource of knowledgeable employees, and as a way to connect the digital lives of patrons with the information they want to gather and use.

The article concludes by saying the the library of the future will be very different from the library of today.  While I personally would like to think of it not so much being different as being "enhanced", the amount of effort and city resources, both in time and financially speaking, is astounding and laudable, especially in an age when many are questioning the role of the public municipal library.