Our Future Progress Banks On: Librarians More Than Libraries

Back in my childhood school days there used to be a period called Library. We had choices for reading. Magazines like Reader’s Digest, Nat Geo, etc or Sportstar, Illustrated Weekly. Then there was a terror-looking madam known as the librarian. Her only duty was to keep the kids from tearing up the magazines and the silence in the room.

I was lucky that my parents took me to the public and private libraries to read.

So what has changed till now?

Nothing. Let us look at history to understand it better.

What is a public library?

A public library is a place that is accessible to the public. Public sources usually funded it, such as taxes.

A brief history does not hurt.

Before the digitalisation age - project Gutenberg or Amazon Kindle or PDFDrive.com, books were physical. They were costly, hence accessible only to a select few. This led to the creation of shared books. It’s called a library where scholars used to come to read books that they did not own. They viewed the library as a warehouse for books worth sharing.

Who is a librarian?

The librarian is not a simple clerk who works at the library. They are actually persons who know the entire data of the library. They act as a guide, a Sherpa, or a mentor. The librarian is actually a user interface. The interface between volumes of data/information and the untrained aspiring reader.

Unfortunately, this role has stigmatised to merely keeping records of all the transactions. From my early childhood, my impression of a librarian has not changed. Neither have they.

So why talk about them now?

Post project Gutenberg, the cost of books has plummeted. The access to books has grown exponentially. Today, the entire internet community has access to tons of data. Each one of them has 1000s of books on his hard drive. The number of new titles released per day has also increased.

Now there is a different need. What is it?

The internet and e-commerce provide access to big data for everyone. This has removed the scarcity of books or information. What is has created is a need for a librarian. A person who can tell you what to read, what is good from this information superhighway.

Is more choice not good for us?

At the offset, you may think it is good, but when you understand it in full, you know that more choice is detrimental. Yes - having greater choices makes you more miserable.

Many psychiatrists today say that more choices make a person create a feeling of FOMO in them. FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out.

(Am not saying the 80s/90s were better than now). Back then, there was no internet to connect us, yet we lived in peace. There were no issues - we had limited choices. DD (2 channels) 3 models of car (Fiat, Ambassador, Contessa), 5 cricket matches per year, 3 yearly exams. In fact, as you know it was happier than now.

Fast forward to 2020 - what do we have?

Want to watch a movie? Netflix or Amazon prime is a great librarian. The Netflix librarian, in fact, knows more about you than yourself. It knows the entire IMDB database, has all the contents at a click of a button. So if the goal is to recommend a good movie to you, then Netflix wins. (Are you happy seeing the movie that Netflix recommends?)

YouTube and its huge databank of your viewing history have sidelined the art of reading. They have made everything in a visual form and are available 24/7. Do you think your kids are going to go search the physical books for their project work? They always search online video tutorials (Source: my kids)

You might want them to (I want them to), but they won’t unless coerced. Every time when kids want to go out to the mall instead of a library/bookstore. It’s not that the mall won, the library lost.

So what am I saying?

Post kindle and Project Gutenberg, the dynamics have changed. There are plenty of books (content), warehousing is cheap (Kindle), and access is 24/7 (online). So what is scare?

It’s the knowledge or insight (Data - the new oil). Who else better than a librarian can serve this need?

What is my conclusion?

There is more demand for librarians than for the library. The trend is very clear. We need to protect ourselves and our kids from this information superhighway.

How?

The expertise to separate the signals from the noise. Act like a librarian to your kids and friends. Who better than you can do it?

You need not get every pizza topping right, it’s all right to make mistakes. Forget FOMO and get to JOMO. What I call the joy of missing out.

Start creating the next library inside your home. The mission: Taking the entire world of data, using your wisdom, create value for your kids.

The need for the hour is not libraries, it’s librarians. Are you ready to become one?