If iPads and other new mobile computers catch on, libraries might not need to offer rooms full of computers for students to do their research, writing, and Facebooking. But if that happens, will students have any reason left to visit the library?
That’s the provocative question posed by Brian Mathews, assistant university librarian at the University of California at Santa Barbara, on his blog this week.
The trend in the last few years was to add more computers to the library, creating spaces often called “information commons.” And during that time, visits to the library have increased greatly. “I think the key to our current success has been the computers,” Mr. Mathews says on his blog.
But now Mr. Mathews says he hears colleagues planning to remove desktops and trying programs to loan out iPads or netbooks to students who want to use a computer while in the library. “So the real question is: What happens when they don’t need computers anymore?”
His answer is sobering for library officials: “If you take the computers out of the commons, I think you’d see our numbers drop by half,” he argues.
In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Mathews said he did think that libraries can find ways to remain relevant and offer services that will keep students coming through the door. But he said it might involve making more changes in what campus libraries offer.
“It’s key to start having that conversation now,” he said.
Are computers the key to current library success? What should libraries offer if a mobile-computer revolution does sweep through campuses in the near future?
28 Responses to If Libraries Remove Computers, Will Anyone Come?
hlsimmons - April 29, 2010 at 5:23 pm
hlsimmonsWHY SHOULD COMPUTERS BE THE SINGLE WAY TO GET STUDENTD INTERESTED IN LIBRARIES? ISN’T THE STUDENT COMING TO THE LIBRARY IN SEARCH OF INFORMATION IN OLD BOOKS AND OTHER MATERIAL FOR THEIR TOPIC SEARCH OF SOME MYSTIFYING SUBJECT WHICH HAS NOT BEEN CAPTURED ON COMPUTER FILES? THAT’S IF THE LIBRARY HAS BEEN MODERNIZED AND IS NOT LIKE SOME PLACES THAT ARE FORBODEN TO “READERS” AND THESE READERS HAVE NOT FORSAKEN THE LIBRARY. ONE OF THE PROBLEMS IS THAT STUDENTS DON’T OFTEN GET THAT SCINTILATING NEWS THAT THERE IS SOMETHING OF INTEREST IN THE LIBRARY–IT MUST BE FOUND!
davidstack - April 29, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I think the real question is what the gate counts will be if the coffee shops are taken out ;-)
saratifr - April 29, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I do not think this scenario would happen, droves of students LEAVING the libraries if desktop computers are removed. At least at my academic library, we are seeing more and more undergraduates consulting at reference desks AND simply studying in our libraries. The UGs seem to prefer the main and the branch libraries a bit over the more-undergraduate/most-computerized library. In addition, student government focus groups tell us they really need libraries for study space and research support. Granted it could be different at different institutions that have more space on their campuses, but I think our supportive environment niche is not to be discounted.(On a side note, graduate students tell us they use PRINT BOOKS quite OFTEN to get up to speed on fields that are new to them. )
tjdempster - April 29, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Coffee shops? What hifalutin college are you affiliated with, davidstack? Oh, right: those more concerned with creature comforts and spending fee money on the wrong things. Sorry for the polemical retort. Also, hlsimmons: caps lock, in Internet-speak, is yelling. Multi-part response here:1. There are these things called “books” and “special collections” that exist in practically every library at every 4-year institution to which a core population of students will always be drawn, for which those students (and the faculty who teach them) will have need. This is perhaps a touch naive, but until, say, the town map of Anniston, Alabama from 1840 is digitised, a local historian-in-training will have to go to the stacks or collections.2. Have the libraries afraid of losing their headcounts work with their campus IT department so that such things like EBESCO, WorldCAT, LexisNexis, and so on, are available -only- through the university’s library – or even through a subsidiary library. Stop paying more people and more corporations more money in order to create proxy environments. Give the student an incentive to go the library and get more work done than in their dorm room or TA office.3. As with the Chronicle, charge for “premium” content. If the college or university has the good fortune of having any special collection (for instance, the Don Delillo papers at Texas’s Harry Ransom Center, or the Varga Cello Collection at UNC-Greensboro) the library should digitize it and make it available (as with the printed materials) only within the confines of the library in secure formats, and charge non-students or non-faculty for digital privileges off-site.4. Finally, it seems odd to me that fewer and fewer instructors are leaving things on reserve for students at circulation desks. With automated check-in/check-out counters springing up, it seems the part-time workers at the circ desks are going to run out of things to do. Put that weighty tome on reserve!Of course, I could always blame the potential lack of bodies in libraries on a potential lack of scholarship happening anymore or a potential lack of love of learning or no desire to research. But I won’t and I’ll remain pragmatic.
phearn - April 29, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Libraries have always been about learning, community, and information…..they are vital to our societies….and those needs won’t change. Yes, conversations should take place now, as they would in any business or organization to keep up with the changes. I think librarians are up for the challenge and look forward to being a part of keeping libraries relevant for the future!
jbabbott - April 29, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I don’t think libraries are in real danger per se. The real scholars will still be willing to get off their butts and scuttle around the lower levels of the libraries to find paper versions of articles critical to the success of their research. Naive, perhaps, but in my classes where the final project is research driven, the stronger students know where the library is located on campus.
dbeagle - April 29, 2010 at 9:38 pm
What I hear from the many students who already own laptops & mobile devices on our campus is that they strongly prefer having the desktop alternative in our Learning Commons. Sometimes they do bring their laptops or mobile devices and use our plug-in carrels, but more frequently they leave them in the dorm and come in to use a desktop. Asked why, one replied “Ever try typing a 25 page paper on a Blackberry keypad?” I’d also love to have someone show me hard data that large numbers of students are requesting loaner laptops as a preference over desktops on their own initiative. Or, are they just responding “Sure, ok, that’s a cool idea” to library survey questions prompting laptop loans as an option? Whatever the case, I think the Chronicle has “chronically” under-reported the Information Commons phenomenon as the cliche of a computer lab in the library. Why don’t we see a fuller examination of this for what it really is on a large and growing number of campuses: a wide-ranging and agile model for new levels of library service delivery made possible by a vastly enlarged set of digital and media resources? To quote not a librarian, but a teaching faculty member (Dr. Valerie Ross of the University of Pennsylvania) describing the Weigle Information Commons on her campus: “I am astonished to see how the space and its services are transforming my teaching and my students as they continue to take greater control of the process and production of knowledge. At home in the library, increasingly prepared to avail themselves of the many resources and experts available to them, my students are becoming scholars.”
g8briel - April 29, 2010 at 9:55 pm
We seem to have plenty that aren’t on the computers in our library, even if they are a big draw. I don’t realistically see any reason why they would be removed from libraries either.@tjdempster Fee money for coffee shops? You may not like them, and that is fine, but come on. A coffee shop is not going to be a money pit for the university or library. You know, there are companies that open these things for profit;) Also, I think you are missing the point with your suggestions for increasing library visits by making the building the exclusive reserve for access to databases and digitized collections. Collections are digitized primarily so that they can be more accessible outside of the library. And, I’m sorry, but making databases harder to get into doesn’t make any sense at all. It would very much be a step backwards from where we ought to be going with library services. Distance education is the largest growth area in academia. Should we just leave all those students in the dark and say, tough, you don’t get any library services? What about all of the faculty that enjoy access to databases from their offices, homes, and the field? Are we really going to hamper people’s access to information to conduct their research because of some ill-informed idea that they need to do it within the confines of the library? Is it somehow better research when it is done inside of a library? Fortunately I don’t know of any librarians, much less library directors, that would ever take such an idea seriously.From my perspective there is a problem of limited perception when we worry about people not coming into the physical library. It misses the fact that the virtual spaces are part of the library too!
tracyeg - April 29, 2010 at 10:18 pm
What is the role of the traditional library in this century? Each institution can probably provide a different answer. Some may say access and storage of collections, others a pseudo-computer lab yet others a semi-social study space.And, what is the role of the traditional librarian in this century? Managing unique collections appears to be an opportunity for survivability of such positions but managing a general collection of materials is destined to eventually be replaced with Google like services.Inside coffeeshops and computer labs have done a lot to bolster gate counts that have justified sustained operations and spare major contraction.In some sense much of what the library appears to be moving toward is managing contracts for online services.
brianmathews - April 29, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Glad to see the comments. I spoke with Jeff for a little while on this topic today but the real point of it was to speculate on the future of computing. In the original post I tried to take cloud computing and light projection systems to the extreme and then asked: what might this mean for libraries? This was also juxtaposed against the expected increase in digital publishing. I wasn’t saying that we should take away all the desktops and just give everyone laptops starting this Fall– rather I was trying to predict how computing might change and with that how we might access, use, and share information.I agree that many students love to study and work in their libraries for both the quiet and collaborative spaces. But if you look at ARL stats for most libraries in the 90′s there was a decline in use until the Info Commons was born. I was asking what happens when we don’t need the information commons any more. What happens when better technology is available? Or perhaps more appropriately: how might the info commons evolve? I wasn’t trying to disrespect or downplay the value of the library as place, but a campus could create a massive masterpiece of a study hall to fulfill those needs. Hopefully there is still a draw of being surrounded by the books, the tools, and the librarians–but it’s just something to keep on the radar. Those of us who hope to still be working as librarians in 30 years need to help shape the next transformation. Discovery and Creation and themes that will overtake Access– but that’s for another post. As for Dr. Valerie Ross — I’ve found that most of the English faculty that I’ve encountered tend to love their libraries.BrianMathews
orowans - April 30, 2010 at 6:58 am
Why would anyone even consider removing computers from libraries? Libraries have been at the forefront of new information technologies from the time of Gutenberg, including installing typewriter rooms in the early 20th century. Computers are a tool for accessing information, and therefore unavoidable for libraries of any kind in this age.That doesn’t mean that books aren’t used, reference librarians aren’t consulted, etc. It simply means that there is another mechanism in the information world, and libraries must use it.
jschneider11 - April 30, 2010 at 7:33 am
Unfortunately, I think many people still do not get that “computer” and “library” are synonymous regarding access to scholarly materials. Libraries have stored their scholarly content out in the cloud for decades now. Removing computers from the library building that are needed to access this content is like buying books and journals but storing them at the publisher — and telling students and faculty to go there. It simply doesn’t make sense. In addition, at least at many undergraduate institutions, ready access to digital content through computers in the library enhances use of the physical collections nearby. In our new Case Library and Geyer Center for Technology at Colgate University, we have found that physical book circulation, interlibrary loan, and gate count are all much higher than before we opened this new high technology facility meant to immerse students and faculty in a full range of information options regardless of format. And, of course, the use of our digital content increases each year. Joanne A. SchneiderUniversity LibrarianColgate University
bikegrrr - April 30, 2010 at 8:11 am
Libraries can and should continue to be academic hubs. We should think through the use of the space. Books can be warehoused and retrieved. We should add more computers, or access points. Students flock to the library during finals and study times. Might be we be better to provide more academic support services there?What about faculty? What if we could re-purpose some of the space currently occupied by books to innovative classroom space. Put our latest and greatest tech classrooms there and allow faculty to test, play and experiment. And wouldn’t we better serve our clientele with cross-trained library and IT professionals?
mbelvadi - April 30, 2010 at 8:17 am
Libraries shouldn’t think there’s just one answer to solving the problem of how to be relevant in the future, but should adopt a multi-pronged approach in response to the diverging needs of UGs and faculty (I tend to find that grad students’ library needs are either similar to UGs or faculty depending on their context of the moment). UGs are all about the place – computers yes, but with space for collaboration, so we provide group study rooms with smartboards and furniture that facilitates groups sharing a computer together, and also lots of study space and yes, the coffee shop. Faculty need online support, research data support, and collaborative tools to work with their colleagues around the globe, so our library has redefined its role in the research sphere of the university to use our data stewardship, metadata, etc. expertise to get much more involved in helping faculty manage their research data and provide online collaboration tools. We call it the “Virtual Research Environment” and it is a very popular service, especially with the bioscience-related faculty.And to the commenter who thinks the day of having digital versions of that 1840 map is still far off, we are well underway in a massive local historical map digitization project too. Digitization projects are another major new prong – if your library/special collection isn’t involved, you should be taking a serious look at that. If you don’t have copyright-safe materials yourself, look for community and local government partnerships.
music_librarian - April 30, 2010 at 9:22 am
Sidestepping the whole question of books vs. online resources, students in my library are clamoring for more desktop computers. We have laptops for them to use, but a recent survey indicates that it’s desktops that they want.
w_grotophorst - April 30, 2010 at 9:34 am
Want to see them leave in droves? Turn off the network. For those arguing that an information commons has a future because we’re seeing an uptick in use, I’ll offer another perspective:Today’s students are asking again for desktop machines to do work while they’re in the library–but it might well be just a blip, not a trend…They’ve stopped carrying their laptops as much as before because now they do so much of that lifestyle computing on their phones or mobile devices (e.g., facebook, IM, Twitter, email). They use the in-library (or in-lab) desktop to do collaborative work or things their handheld device can’t really do yet. Sooner than you think, as portable devices get more capable, the fleet of desktops in labs and learning commons will seem oddly out of place.
22277855 - April 30, 2010 at 9:36 am
A world-renowned professor I know would have his students examine a 45-volume German reference work. When it was moved to off-sire storage, that became extremely difficult because such storage did not work well for that purpose or something with that many volumes. Even if it were digitized, comparing the hundreds of volumes in its different editions would be more difficult than simply browsing the print volumes in the library, including their diverse fonts, editorial niceties, etc. Why not a both/and rather than either/or vision, with diversity rather than uniformity among future libraries and librarians? Their roles become more needed amid complexity and proliferation of resources!
tribblek - April 30, 2010 at 11:04 am
@orowans (#11): yes, computers are useful. The REASON people are considering removing computers from libraries is (a) their are expensive and in constant need of upgrading and (b) more and more people are walking around with their own (e.g.: iPads, etc.).So — at SOME point in the future — there will be incentive to do away with the expensive computers that are no longer used because students will prefer to use the one in their bookbags.
saucylibrarian - April 30, 2010 at 11:04 am
Perhaps the question here should not be “if we remove computers from the library, will they come to the building?” but instead “if we remove the computers from the library, will the libraries’ resources and services continue to be utilized?” As we move further toward an incredibly information-rich, digital environment that allows users to access the resources and services they need, we also need to revisit how we are assessing the success of our libraries, and of course, be flexible enough to adjust our own roles as librarians to best support our users.Gate counts offer a useful but fairly limited picture of a library’s value to their users. The gate count doesn’t offer a picture of what users are doing in the library. If a library’s gate count is decreasing but use of electronic collections is sky-rocketing, I don’t necessarily see that as an ominous sign. The priority should be supporting the research needs of students and faculty, not just getting people in the door. Perhaps we as librarians, particularly in public services, should focus our attention more on us getting out of our doors and into our students’ classroom environments.
bmljenny - April 30, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Statements like this concern me because they catch the ear of campus administrators who see our buildings as precioussss precioussss space which can be given away if we’re not going to be using it. I work in a library that largely serves a graduate health sciences student population. Our medical and pharmacy schools both have laptop requirements – ALL of these students own laptops. But they do not require them to carry them around all day. The schools do not yet have all classroom and lab space friendly to laptops (or their progeny), eg, tables in every classroom, sufficient numbers of recharging lockers where laptops can be securely stashed while not in use, etc. By the end of the day that laptop is a heavy brick of pain, especially combined with all the other stuff the students carry around. So our Information Commons, public computers and circulating laptops see a ton of use by these students who, according to Mr. Mathews, we should no longer be seeing in the building at all. If the iPad launches a wave of innovation to where truly portable, use-all-day computing becomes feasible, then we might see a reduction in use of our computers, but I think we’ll still see plenty of folks using the building.
albert1 - April 30, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Of course they will come. At our medical school all students are encouraged to have laptops.Their preferred place to come with or without their laptops is the library.If you don’t bring your laptop with you, there are laptops that may be checked out from the circulation desk for several hours. Our renovation of the main floor was specifically done for our students who prefer to study and/or use materials in the library. there is a 24/7 room that is used around the clock. We have even extended hours before exams in the entire library and the students come! jrm
rcsloan - April 30, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Re comment # 9 and the inquiry about the role of librarians..As others have noted, there is an incredible proliferation of scholarly information online. So, for a faculty member, which scenario would you prefer for your undergraduate student commencing a research assignment – a student who sits at a computer using “Google like services” for thirty minutes or a student who works for the same amount of time at the reference desk with a librarian who has the training and expertise to help the student navigate the wealth of resources the library has assembled?As a reference librarian serving primarily an undergraduate liberal arts population, I wonder how well faculty members would be able to respond to (outside their specific disciplines) the range of inquiries we field across multiple subject areas with multiple resources, both within the library and online.
jenref - April 30, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I am a reference librarian in a large urban college where students have the choice of using a computer in a large computer courtyard (with tons of computers) or a small library (with very few computers). I’m not sure why, but many students simply prefer the library. When there aren’t any computers available in the library, I tell students to go to the courtyard, but they just don’t want to go. They also come to the library with their own laptops rather than going elsewhere on campus, even though the library isn’t nearly as quiet as it used to be (for a variety of reasons). I am also constantly amazed by how many students prefer regular books over ebooks and audiobooks. There is still a huge demand for print.
11200222 - April 30, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Clearly, students love to use the library building, for many reasons, including the desktop AND laptop computers we offer them. But in terms of library use, it doesn’t really matter to me whether they are using the resources within the building or outside of it; they are still using the resources, which are increasingly digital, and which would not be available to them if their library were not paying hefty amounts of money to make them available (or, in some cases, physically digitizing within the building). The fact that so many still prefer to use the building itself is perhaps what is remarkable. –Bill Miller, FAU
ifrank - April 30, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Like Bill Miller and others, we haven’t seen a drop-off in numbers of students in the Library yet. (Yes, we have a Starbucks and that’s part of the gate count.) Even though many students seem to have access to various computing devices, so far the computer lab in the learning commons is full a lot of the time. There does seem to be some combination of services and access to resources in the library building that is still a draw. Brian might be correct however. Maybe mobile devices in particular will become so powerful, there will be less need to go to drop by the library to use a desktop. Maybe some day no one will want to read a book printed on paper. Maybe reference librarians will do all their work virtually. Maybe someday our library buildings will be only repositories of archival material and dead quiet. Not yet. I’d like to echo another point above: Libraries are licensing resources that students could never afford on their own. And what’s one of the things that students miss when they graduate? Access to their online library resources! Of course if we can just get everyone on board with the open scholarly access movement… — Ilene Frank, retired librarian, University of South Florida, Tampa.
tcicollegeof - May 3, 2010 at 12:45 pm
In this downtown Manhattan College, the Library is the only quiet place within blocks. Students use the Library to study, photocopy, sleep, and meet friends, as well as to use computers.We have 50 wi-fi slots controlled by our Cassie-Spot (Librarica) computer access control system. Students with laptops still need wi-fi access somewhere. That may change if wi-fi access becomes available everywhere.
informatix95 - May 11, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Many of these positive and thoughtful comments converge on function of community space. Libraries have always served as essential community spaces in academe, and technology need not change this role. Today, libraries are havens for collaboration, for reading and reflecting in a quiet zone, for digital connectivity, for physical nourishment, and even for access to electrical energy. Libraries will endure, because their essential function will continue. The demise of desktop computing will not be the demise of the library.
francishamit - May 12, 2010 at 1:23 pm
The theme of this essay perplexes me. There is a Federal program, dating from the 1990s that not only assures that libraries will have computers, but get new ones on a regular basis. It also pays towards database subscription fees, and those databases are accessible from the home computers of anyone with a library card. All without charge. Your tax dollars at work. The idea was to democratize the digital revolution. Very important for the unemployed since most job applications now have to be filed online. Libraries are not going to get rid of computers, even as Google Books makes the trip to the physical space unnecessary. (I do a lot of research on 19th Century orignal texts there and other online databases for my historical novels). When it comes to physical books, shelf space has become valuable real estate and there is this unfortunate tendency to triage books based on the number of times they are checked out — or not. In my experience, a lot of books on the shelf are used by students and researchers without leaving the building. There is no practical way to determins such usage. When I was working for the Enclyopaedia Britannica in the early 1980s, long before desktop computers were avaialble, I had to visit a number of libraries in the Chicago area to find sources. This caused me to also visit used bookstors and start building my own research library in the area of Intelligence Affairs (Some of the articles were on organizations like the CIA and the KGB) because the library collections simply didn’t have enough different sources between them to meet EB’s standards. Computer access to these materials solves a lot of problems and improves scholarship.