School Libraries: The Blockbuster of Today?

     To begin, I love libraries and book stores. Well, to be more specific, I love what's in them. When I tell my family that I'm going to stop in at Barnes & Nobles, Borders, or the library in town, they understand that this means several things at once:

• I'll be out of touch for at least two hours. (I don't own a cell phone and even if I did I wouldn't bring it with me.)
• If they want to tag along, they have to decide if they can handle the minimum two hour visit time as well as put up with my many single syllable responses to their queries. 
• I'm going to put a nifty little dent in the family bank account.
• More books will be have to be squeezed into already tightly-packed bookcases.

     The thing of it is, I'm beginning to wonder how much longer the brick and mortar homes of books can remain as they are. I'm wondering if I need to make those trips by car and foot to my mecca. Just consider the Blockbuster versus Netflix business models and you'll understand what I mean. 

     Netflix has mortally wounded Blockbuster with its mailbox DVDs and online streaming. We want what we want quicker, cheaper, and delivered directly to us. Going to a store or the library simply doesn't hit on all three of those needs. Thus is Netflix able to slay a company many thought would replace the theater business, which is actually being handled by today's home entertainment theaters. These dynamic changes have me musing about school libraries. 

     Our school libraries, if they were a business, are far closer to Blockbuster than Netflix, and this is worrisome. In a business like Blockbuster, movies are bought, delivered, repackaged, cataloged, and shelved for customers take home. You could substitute books for movies and students for customers and still be accurate about the school library model. In both instances, there is a of time and expense woven into the goal of having individuals come, peruse, and leave with products in hand. It's a centralized model, which has Blockbuster scrambling to be more like Netflix and it's push out ways.

     I wonder if the time hasn't come to work more on a push out model for our business...err...libraries. I'm not calling for an end to physical books, or even librarians, but any means. In fact, both remain indispensable to education.  No, what I am suggesting is recognizing the successful models of today, our customer wants, and mimicking them as best as we can. This means divvying library books into classroom sets and adopting eReaders as soon as possible. That's right. Don't put the books into one big room, put the books into all the little rooms where the students are. And, start transitioning to the medium most are using now, electronic delivery of information.

Consider  all of these statements:  

• Every generation, from this point on, carries more computing power in their mobile devices than NASA had when launching the first ships to the moon.
• Electronic books are cheaper than paper books.
• When given the choice between going to the library to check out a book or downloading it to a portable reading device, most will overwhelmingly chose the second option.
• Locating the right read is easier and quicker (even more enjoyable) using Amazon (or our Destiny Quest browser) than working your way through rows and stacks of books. (Okay, I'll admit. I do like the experience of discovering a book by randomly roaming up and down the aisles, but I believe I'm in the minority with this one.)
• The Kindle, Nook, and Sony eReader can hold thousands of electronic books either via purchase or free download from the thousands of books in the public domain. (Wait until Google enters the field!) A lot less physical space is necessary.
• At least one state, Utah, has adopted eReaders as the primary means by which textbooks and pleasure books will be put into student hands. Texas is also heading in the same direction. (The larger sized Kindle displays entire textbooks with perfect clarity and all the usual instant connections to links, videos, updated information, etc.)
• Items stacked next to store registers tend to sell quickly, the so-called impulse purchase. Books, when well displayed (covers showing, not spines) tend to be checked out most frequently. Put 50 books on display in every classroom and they'll start moving. 
• Most eReaders allow users to read the first chapters of new books for free. They also show users books most-like the ones being read or examined. 
• Student connections between subject matter (science, social studies, art, etc.) can be enhanced through the proper pairing of classrooms to teachers and students.

The push out concept is not a silver bullet. There are complications. Tracking books from classroom libraries is much more challenging and potentially onerous for teachers. Librarians must make more trips to classrooms to share books and swap new titles for older titles.  However, this is how major transitions tend to work. It's not without bumps. Netflix began with DVDs to mailboxes only, then limited streaming, and slowly is working toward complete streaming. 

     Librarians, take heed. While I'm confident, as a mere reading teacher, that I misunderstand much of how a library functions, I feel as confident that change is coming and should be embraced. So, for those working the stacks, I welcome any comments you may have.

Hard (Copy) Decision

The question isn’t will I, it’s when will I. When will I switch from purchasing, carrying, and peering into hard copies of the written word and embrace the soothing, high-resolution, electronic delivery of the written word, because the next step in delivering the written word to each of us is in mid-stride.


Kindle is leading the way, followed by eReader, and now the Nook. Each device is portable and capable of delivering a massive number of books, articles, and blogs to your fingertips. Anyone who says this won’t replace books did not pay attention to events in the music world.

The iPod came, it saw, it conquered. Vinyl recordings are a clear marker in my life of how old I am these days, and I don’t sound all that hip and relevant when I mention music CDs either. (Hmmm… add the word hip to the list of you’re-showing-your-age items.)

I do love books. I find it incredibly relaxing to peruse books in a library, store, and even online. I like holding books and being an owner of books. My home is in many ways a small library unto itself because of how much I enjoy books. And yet, this does not mean I won’t eventually change how I receive the written word of others.

Frankly, there’s too much to like about the new age of print to stay away from it much longer. The real difficulty is going to be deciding which portable device I finally purchase. There are pros and cons to each device, which I will not bother with here as there are hundreds of sites that have done this already. Instead I’ll give my reasons to go electronic along with my worries.



The reasons to buy electronic:

It is cheaper. Yes, the machine costs money, but the savings with electronic version of books makes up for it. Hard copies of books cost far more and take longer to come down in price. Electronic books begin cheaper and move down in price quicker than those we purchase from a brick and mortar locale. There is less clutter. Books pile up quickly, and they have an eerily magnetic way about them when it comes to dust. A thousand books on shelves is messy. A thousand books in electronic form is sublime. I will make better decisions. I don’t always leave a store with the books I planned to purchase. Sometimes it’s due to cost and other times it’s spotting something else of interest. By accessing Amazon, for example, directly from Kindle, I can see reviews of books and similar types of books to assist with my decisions. There should be less guess work. I’m also often under a time constraint when I’m at a bookstore and make hasty decisions. I’m hopeful there’ll be better organization. My books are sometimes filled with ear-marked pages, highlights, odd slips of papers, or a notation along the inside covers. All of which seem like good ideas until I need to actually return to this information. Then, I’m left wondering what my grand organizational plan was at the time as I look through shelves of books. An electronic device will force me into one method, which is (I hope) much easier, reliable, and sensible.



The reasons I worry about going electronic:

Foremost in my mind is ownership. When I buy a book I can do with it what I will -not so with an electronic version. I cannot readily hand off the copy to a friend. Some electronic readers will allow you the chance to lend a book for two weeks, like a library, but that’s not good enough. Generally, when I lend a book, I don’t expect it back because I know it’ll be gone for months. I worry about instantaneous collection loss. What happens if my portable device breaks? A broken device means I’ll have nothing to read until it’s replaced or repaired. Amazon claims to backup all your purchases, but I’ve read mixed reviews on this. Example, periodicals are only backed-up for two weeks! Normally, I try to weed out piles of magazines. But, if I can have an electronic copy, I would not have to decide what to throw away. I like seeing books. Books packed into shelves simply sings to me. They don’t even have to be my books or books I’ve read.

Most likely, I'll find myself holding onto both in the end. I'm looking forward to the new experience.