Physical Space for Virtual Services and Collections

As librarians, we need to understand better how people are acquiring and using information—“start swimming,” or we may “sink like a stone.” Users from the Alexandrian Library in 331 BC would easily recognize that they were in today’s modern library. The physical attributes of the collection would be different, but they would know they were in a library. What happens to the library as place when the collection becomes increasingly electronic? New libraries continue to be built—to house the libraries’ physical collections, provide access to electronic materials, and serve as a physical place where people come to read and to study. Fifteen years ago new libraries were being built to accommodate public access terminals. It was rare to see a user with a portable computer. Now that libraries and campuses are wired, the user is becoming unwired. What is the future of the library as a physical space? In 2003, Grant Gross reported that five billion gigabytes of data were generated in 2002, equaling 800 megabytes per person or enough data to fill 500,000 Library of Congresses. Of these data, 92 percent were stored magnetically on hard drives. Between Now that libraries and campuses are wired, the user is becoming unwired. What is the future of the library as a physical space?