The Decline of Reading and the Library Organization: A Few Thoughts.

INTRODUCTION

The formation of the library as we know it today follows in close connection as the Enlightenment ideal to codify and gather all knowledge together. From Carl Linnaeus’ attempt to classify all the animal kingdom, (it would drive him mad), to Denis Diderot’s creation of the Encyclopédie, the library, developed along theses same lines. The organization of the library developed at the same time as thinkers like Adam Smith, Locke, and Émile Durkheim, who developed the beginnings of classic organizational theory. Traditionally, the library has been seen to follow these classic to modernist thinkers in developing a very modern organizational structure. This can be seen reflected in the architecture of libraries built during this time. The arching windows and Greek columns make these libraries to appear as temples of learning. Yet, this image and purpose for the library is changing. We find ourselves, as information professionals, attempting to build our place on the shifting sands of new technology and new cultural changes that challenge the modernist view of the place and purpose of the library an its organization.

DECLINE IN READING

Now, I am aware that I am not going to be able to solve or even provide a complete overview of the past modernist organization and the new changes that are needed to confront the challenges to the libraries of today. Yet, I hope to illustrate one issue that has come to my attention and I feel is important to the library world. This is the study released by the National Endowment for the Arts showing that reading is on the decline in the United States over the last few years. A few of the basic statistics uncovered by the NEA study are cited below and the whole study can be found here.

· Only 47% of adults read a work of literature (defined as a novel, short story, play or poem) within the past year.
· That figure represented a 7-point decline in the percentage of literary readers over a 10-year period.
· Literary reading declined in both genders, across all education levels, and in virtually all age groups.
· The declines were the steepest in young adults, accelerating at a greater rate than in the general population.

This decline will have a profound effect on the use of libraries and how the public will interact with the library organization. It is this issue that has drawn my attention. I admit I do not know what libraries are to make of these trends, but I do know that the organization of the library needs to keep these issues in mind. A piece published in the New Yorker by Caleb Crain speaks of the changes we may see in the reading world over the next few years. Also, I have a link to his blog in which he cites the sources for many of the issues he discusses in his article here, and here.

Final Thoughts

“Information has never been stable,” (Darnton, 4). It is in these shifting waters of knowledge that the organization of any library must navigate. From holding cuneiform tablets and chaining copyists to their desks in ancient Nineveh,(talk about classical organization) to the effort by Google to digitize all of the books in the world, libraries have continued to adapt throughout time. Yet, it seems that people are reading books less and less.

Many see this downward trend in reading and feel it may spell doom for libraries. Robert Darnton points out in his essay “The Library in the New Age,” that Google’s project to digitize all the books in print is a false one. Even if Google managed to digitize 90 per cent of the world’s books that would still leave millions unaccounted for. Darnton explains that ephemeral items from the past, like chapbooks and the penny dreadful, are now prized by researchers; who knows what researchers of the future will want to study from our time.

There are other ways to look at this problem. Matthew Battles points out, “Already we call our databases and online catalogs “digital objects,”” (211). It is also possible that the advent of the electronic reader may bring a revival in reading within the digital generation. Already the Nintendo Company is planning on giving the new version of their hand-held video game platform the Nintendo DS, electronic reader capabilities, (Flood, 1). Providing services for these users may in fact be a key area that libraries can use to provide services to these individuals as well.
Christopher Lake

Battles, Matthew. Library: an unquiet history. W. W. Norton & Co: New York, 2003.

Cain, Caleb. Twilight of the books. The New Yorker, 12/24/2007.

Darnton, Robert. The library in the new age. The New York Review of Books, 55(10). June 12, 2008.

Office of Research and Analysis, National Endowments of the Arts. To read or not to read: a question of national consequence. Research report 47. National Endowment for the Arts, November 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2008 from http://www.arts.gov/