Peter Brantly had a good post in the O'reilly blog about the declining power of libraries.
It's thought I'll write up some of the things I think libraries should do in order to save themselves from the fate of the dinosaurs.
Hey, let’s face it – A lot of the times it’s much easier to find information in Google, than trying to crawl thousands of books in the library.
So what do the libraries need to do in order to save themselves from extinction?
1. Go with the flow – It’s easier to deal with electronic data. You can copy paste it, embed it in your paper directly, etc. Instead of keep holding on the old concept of the book, jump into the new reality. Make more books visible online (under a closed network/site).
2. Add better ways to consume information – Have you heard the term Multimedia? Why not upload to the library site webcasts of professors and lessons from the university. Webcasts of students talking about their research, interviews with researches around the world, etc.
3. Make the search experience better – Searching something specific in Google is getting harder and harder. Develop a virtual representation of the library, where important information around the net is cataloged better (from the specific perspective of a student that wants to research university subjects).
4. Make it more social – Allow people to share ideas, comment on books, etc. The concepts of Web 2.0 will fit the library very well.
5. Understand that the purpose of the old bricks library has changed. Its purpose is to help people learn better together and not to hold the vast information of the universe. Concentrate on the things that can help students when they need to meet, study, research and work together.
Trying to keep the library books and information out of the Internet in order to preserve the old concept of the library is like the useless fight the music industry tried to give to digital music. We all saw what happened. The only question is if you can wake up early enough to realize you need to transform yourself and get on with the new digital reality.