Bibliodiversity

I am predicting that physical collections at our schools will shrink by 15% over the next couple years. A combination of the rise of good information online, budget cutbacks over 17 years that have made buying good books harder and harder, increasing virtualization, format creep** and a culture of hoarding = frugality have caused us to reach this point.

I am excited. I keep harping on the shortness of distance between the libraries and production as these changes come. A dream that change will come and we will find our way to keep what we value and need. It's probably all Pollyanna but in my heart I hope I am at the cusp of a metamorphosis in resources for learning and living .. and not the death of library system.

But who knows?



** Format creep is what I bill as "It's the 70's all over again!" Listening centres are back, video streamed clips are the new film strip, models are huge and we are all media makers. How can this not be awesome?

JDG image above first seen on this post. Now part of a show at the David Weinberg Gallery, Detroit.