April 30, 2007
The library of tomorrow. It sounds so cool. Accessing all the written knowledge of the world through technology and expanding global interconnectivity.
The most exciting feature of future libraries is the ability to access other libraries in places like Greece, Spain, and China. A patron might enjoy being able to sit down at a computer and access a library in Germany, then click on the book and have it translated into the language of their choice on screen. Instead of having to expand physical space in each library, technology would expand the boundaries of the virtual space. Much like United Nations, the library could have six official languages: Arabic, Chinese English, French, Russian and Spanish. The books could also be translated into one of the six languages of a person’s choice.
If possible, libraries might have more computers for connecting to the other libraries around the world. Whenever I go to the library, all the computers have been occupied. Most of the people on the computers were children who were playing online games and things like that. It would be really neat if the computers were able to detect when someone is not really doing anything important, such as going on Myspace. When the computers detect this, they should be able to turn off. My vision of a library is a place of research, learning, and reading. The library of tomorrow will be patronized by the children of tomorrow—children who won’t hog the computers for games or e-mail.
Another excellent feature could be to assist blind people by having a system for listening to music and books. The person could choose which CD or book to listen to by pressing a button with Braille spelling the title, and sit down and listen. Copies of books in Braille would also be efficient. If I was blind, I would certainly like to have my favorite books available in Braille.
In addition, there could be a robot machine that organizes books and then physically rolls around the library re-shelving the books. Here’s how I think it should work. Every night, all the day’s returned books would be put into the machine by the librarian. The machine would read the barcode and use the information to decide where the book goes in the library, and then it would roll around putting books on the shelves with a mechanical arm.
Another great technological advance would be a solution for cleaning books without taking any ink off of the paper. I’ve come across many books with spills and stains and writing on them. It is really disappointing and disrespectful.
Also, I would like to see a shelf of most read books, so that people could just look through those and pick one out. (Sort of like the Newberry bookshelf.) I would really enjoy one of these because there are a lot of good books that haven’t been brought into focus.
Libraries are so great. I’m glad they exist. What if there weren’t any libraries? I don’t even want to think about it.