Letter: Jones Leadership Lacks the Vision to Build a Library for the 21st Century
Jones Library, showing part of the 1993 addition that is slated to be demolished. Photo: Art Keene
Some time ago, in my criticism of the plans to demolish and then rebuild parts of the Jones Library, I wrote that the planners were ignoring changes in the transmission, storage, and recall of media and data that were affecting modern library design, and that were accelerating due to behavioral changes imposed on all of us by the corona virus.
That idea is not mine and is not new. See below:
In the next 5–10 years substantial changes will occur in the publishing field and information will be marketed in different “packages”: in book or journal form, on microfilm or microfiche or on magnetic tapes or chips. it will therefore be possible not only to search the catalog remotely but to ask for the desired information to be displayed or printed out over the telephone wire. The library will eventually come to the user rather than forcing the user to make the effort to go to the library which often requires several trips.
That paragraph appears in the collection of planning documents for Hampshire College: The Making of a College (The M.I.T. Press 1966), p. 354, Appendix K, The Future of Library Automation. It is “excerpted from a letter to Hampshire College by Steven E. Firth, International Business Machines Corporation, August 29, 1966.”
Mr. Firth wrote that letter more than 57 years ago, even before the Internet was created. He could see what was coming then. We can imagine what is coming now. Too bad that the Jones leadership lacks that vision or imagination.
Ken Rosenthal
Ken Rosenthal lives on Sunset Avenue in Amherst. He was Chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals and of the former Development and Industrial Commission, and was a member of the Select Committee on Goals for Amherst. He was a founder of Hampshire College and its first Chief Financial Officer.
A recent article (https://blog.pressreader.com/libraries-institutions/four-library-technology-trends-shaping-the-future-of-public-libraries) on library technology trends supports the idea that we should arguably be making libraries smaller and more efficient, not bigger.
In my opinion the now more than 10-year-old vision for the Jones Library is a misguided waste of money and it destroys some of the charms people like most about the library. Town leaders have jumped on the project bandwagon as a state-subsidized means of catching up on deferred maintenance — even though using construction grant money for maintenance is expressly prohibited by MBLC regulation (see https://answers.mblc.state.ma.us/construction/faq/384856).
I was pleasantly surprised to see this article. Apparently we can have hope for the printed page and physical library buildings!
https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/11/new-ala-report-gen-z-millennials-are-visiting-library-prefer-print-books
The first page of Gen Z and Millennials: How They Use Public Libraries and Identify Through Media Use.
For Immediate Release
Wed, 11/01/2023
Contact: Ian Ware
Communications Manager
Public Policy and Advocacy Office
iware@alawash.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Gen Z and Millennials are using public libraries, both in person and digitally, at higher rates compared to older generations, according to a new report released today by the American Library Association (ALA). Gen Z and Millennials: How They Use Public Libraries and Identify Through Media Use draws on a nationally representative survey to reveal the attitudes and behaviors young Americans have regarding library use and media consumption.
Authored by Kathi Inman Berens, Ph.D., and Rachel Noorda, Ph.D., both of Portland State University, the report and survey data show that 54 percent of Gen Z and Millennials visited a physical library within the previous 12 months. Of the 2075 Gen Z and Millennials surveyed in 2022, more than half who self-reported visiting a physical library said they also borrow from a library’s digital collection. The data also revealed younger Americans’ distinct preference for physical versions of books: survey respondents read and bought on average twice as many print books per month as any other category.
“Great news: Younger generations of people are reading books, buying books, and visiting libraries,” said Dr. Noorda. “Not only are Gen Z and Millennials engaging with books, but they are also engaging with other forms of media. They are gamers, readers, writers, and fans who are comfortable with malleability between media categories and forms.”
Libraries are drawing even Gen Z and Millennials who don’t self-identify as readers. More than half of the 43 percent of Gen Z and Millennials who don’t self-identify as readers have been to their local library in the past 12 months.
If the American Library Association press release is accurate, then it is promising that youth are embracing libraries and printed books.
It makes one wonder why the Jones Library Director has reduced print holdings by 54,137 items (25% of the collection) since planning for building expansion began in 2014.
It is promising that this article gives support to the idea that Gen Z are into spending time in libraries. It was inspiring to hear a few of this generation speak up for the Jones Library at the budget hearing (although I have personal reservations about the likelihood that this will be the last time the town is asked for money for this project.) I applaud them getting their voices heard and wanting to use Amherst’s libraries. Like them, I’m a believer in public libraries – I want them to be on everybody’s radar and a part of daily life in our cities and towns.
I did read about the Wisconsin example of a mechanized book sorting machine that goes wrong. Its really concerning for the Jones and I am very sad that we have agreed (speaking as a member of the Historical Commission) to making room for this ‘beast’ in a very historic part of the 1928 library building so close to the main entrance. While it is classed as a piece of equipment, it has none the less made it necessary for several elements of the original room plan to be altered. I like Hilda Greenbaum’s idea idea of it possibly being in the basement and somehow accessible from there on the side or back of the new addition, but wonder if that might make space for Special Collections and the Civil War Tablets exhibit more cramped. We seem to have reached a point of no return on this project.
I think we are all burdened by the restrictions imposed by the MLBC in terms of their funding for this project. It should be possible to say yes to universal access, exceptional green energy considerations, and community requirements without the very extensive remediation and careful abatement that this project currently calls for. In a town that prides itself on ‘climate-friendly’ accommodations and intentions, the debris from the demolition of the 1993 addition and the asbestos abatement is going to be considerable – and expensive.