The Future ofPublic Libraries

Including the Specific Future of Lawrence Public Library

Brad Allen,Director

About me

About me

First, a bit of history...

In the beginning...

Libraries protected and preserved books (texts were scarce)

"Libraries raised me. ... I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."

-Ray Bradbury

By the 20th Century, public libraries were the 'people's universities'

The world used to be analog.

Information existed in physical containers and libraries stored it.

Today, the world is digital.Computers are central to our daily lives.

Libraries have gone from this

To This

To this

The world has gone from this

To this

And this

And all this, too

And most recently, from this

To this

So that's the world,but what about Lawrence?

The existing public library is now 40 years old.

In November 2010, Lawrence citizens voted foran $18 million bond to build a new library.

We asked our community what was most important, and they told us.

More space for kids.

Enriching the lives of children is essential to the mission of our library.

More space for community meetings.

Providing meeting spaces for our citizens is crucial to the mission of our library.

State of the art technology.

Looking to the future,what else could (perhaps should)

libraries do to enrich the lives of the people they serve?

For public libraries,the answer should always be attuned to the specific community it serves.

Perhaps new services could accomplish

new missions?

"Content creation" stations

Collaborative Content Creation Stations

Multitrack recording studio

Video production

Our library will have a recording studio and audio-visual editing booths

to support the creativity of our community.

Makerspaces

There are public libraries that have makerspaces.

A community commonplace...

A final thought

"A library's function is to give the public in the quickest and cheapest way information, inspiration, and recreation.

If a better way than the book can be found, we should use it." 

-Melvil Dewey

Thank you!

Questions?