Library….. Commons? and unCommon Purposes

In recent years the image, purpose and management of the library, both public and academic, has changed. As stated in the article
“The Library as Commons” the tendency has been to use attributes of the model of business to describe and evaluate its function. As a result, libraries began to change the way they displayed books and other materials, coffee shops were installed complete with a variety of pastries and comfortable seating, and libraries often concerned themselves with building collections within its budget
constraints. This is all great, of course, as it is an attempt to provide patrons with access to information resources under certain constraints. The question remains however. Are not libraries fundamentally different from businesses?

The purposes of the two entities, business and the library, can be described at the very least as uncommon. The primary purpose of business is to “maximize profits to its shareholders” while the purpose of the library is to “serve the common good by collecting and organizing information resources and assuring equitable access to those resources” (271). If the model of business does not completely address the purpose of libraries, what does? The model of the Commons.

Commons

Recently the word “commons” has come to be used in the sense of any resources that the community recognizes as being accessible to any member of that community” (p.271). Librarians have sought ways to expand access to resources and as a direct result have begun to build communities or “commons”.

Resources are shared in common rather than held or owned privately then sold or traded for profit as in the business model. These open and accessible to all in the community resources include “software commons, licensing commons, open access to scholarly journals, digital repositories, institutional commons, and subject matter commons in areas ranging from knitting to music to agriculture to Supreme Court arguments” (p.1.)

No longer should library managers and directors hold the belief that the size of the collections, hours of operation, policies, late fees and budget are all that they need to be concerned with in order to serve the patron effectively. (modernist perspective) The library and the “business” of libraries can be and is so much more.

The library should address the community—its needs and concerns in a more direct manner. Managers should analyze the community and its information search behavior in order to best cater to the user. (symbolic-interpretive) and after having gleaned that knowledge managers should provide services and resources that the patron would best and most often utilize.

Yes the image, purpose and management of the library has changed. There has been a definite paradigm shift. Open access to a variety of resources without the constraint of location, format, cost, time of day, or policy has definitely made the Library Common and the community is better for it.

Pics of the Learning Commons at NC State University http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=moz2&va=dh+hill+library+learning+commons&sz=all&imtype=&imqualityall

References

Hatch, Mary Jo and Cunliffe, Ann L. (2006). Organization theory: modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.

Kranich, N. (2004). Information Commons- a Public Policy Report. New York, NY: Free Expression Policy Project, Brennan Center for Justice at NYC School of Law.

Seidl, J. (2006). The Library as Commons. Feliciter, 6, 271-272.