Consider the Word “Library:” A Rationale for Including
Non-Book Materials, Programs and Services in Libraries

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What’s the first thing you think of when you consider the word “Library?” Did you think of long rows of shelving filled with books? If you did, you’re not alone. Many people would probably picture that same long row of shelving before they would ever think instead of a rack of DVDs, a specially designed map cabinet, or a bin of art prints. There are some people, even some librarians, who would prefer that the image of books on shelves be the one representative of libraries. One 2006 article insists that “we should embrace the book as our brand, too, not abandon it if we're really worried about literacy” (Fialkoff, 2006). Of course we are worried about literacy, but we are worried about information literacy, not just print literacy. As Ellison and Robinson tell us, “The concept of the supremacy of print must be replaced by the concept of the supremacy of information” (2007).

Arguments are made that non-book materials are just too expensive and to hard for libraries to take care of to justify spending precious staff time and budget dollars on such materials. This is untrue. With careful planning and solid policies about selection, care and storage, any library, no matter its situation, can benefit from including a variety of non-book formats in its collection.

The various formats of non-book items range from audio recordings to games, to local history collections to realia, a format defined by Esther Green Bierbaum as "tangible, three-dimensional physical objects of, or from, the real world" (2007). With the emergence of new and different technologies, the list of non-book items libraries offer will undoubtedly continue to expand.

Why should libraries be concerned with collecting materials for users to access other than print books? There are many reasons why they should, but it is most important to note as Ellison and Robinson tell us, that libraries “do not exist to provide books, but to provide information and enrichment” (2007). Information comes in so many different sizes and shapes beyond just the printed word. If libraries limited themselves just to books, there would be entire types of information that would be excluded. For example, you can be fairly certain that most public and school libraries have good to very good information in their book collections about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the composer. However, just reading about his music and never having the opportunity to hear it as recorded, say, on CD, would be an incomplete experience to say the least.

Think even further for a moment: what if someone interested in Mozart could not only read about him in a book and hear his music as recorded on a CD, but could also have the opportunity to actually see, or even handle, one of his manuscripts? Now, picture not just one person interested in Mozart having these experiences, but a whole room full of Mozart enthusiasts sharing these emotional experiences with each other? We can add other formats to the scenario as well, such as a print of a portrait painted of Mozart when he was alive, a genealogy of Mozart’s family, and a DVD film of a biography of Mozart’s life. Clearly, non-book formats not only enrich the experience of the user, they provide for exposure to much larger audiences and enable information to be transmitted and absorbed more completely than those afforded by print alone.

From a learning standpoint, it is also important to remember that many people respond better to different styles of learning rather than just that offered by print. As Ellison and Robinson note, “it is obvious that all formats of information must be made available to meet the variety of individual cognitive and enrichment styles represented by our diverse publics” (2007). Some are auditory learners, some prefer visual experience, and some are kinesthetic, or rather they learn better by doing, rather than by hearing or seeing. Non-book collections and services in libraries assist the process of learning by providing alternative formats to users.

Many libraries provide hands-on personal computer instruction classes. It would be one thing to read a book or listen to a lecture about how to use a computer, but when libraries provide users with the opportunity to learn to operate a computer by actually interacting with one, the learning experience becomes an entirely different event than one that would involve simply reading a book. In their article “Creating Cyberseniors,” Connie Van Fleet and Karen Antell note that, “Put simply, they learn a given process better by actually doing it rather than being told how to do it” (Van Fleet & Antell, 2002).

So it is clear that there is much to be gained from the utilization of non-print materials by library users. But what is the motivation for libraries to collect non-print materials? Aside from better serving their patrons, there are several. Consider the library user, a devoted printed book reader, who also discovers with the assistance of a friendly librarian the advantage of checking out audio books to use on her daily commute to and from work. Perhaps that user is then also attracted to the new downloadable mp3 audio book service the library begins to offer. Users who are exposed to formats other than print have that many more reasons to seek services and materials from the library. As a result, library circulation and other statistics go up. As this scenario is repeated with other users being exposed to additional formats, the library gains visibility in the community and subsequently receives more support both emotionally and financially from the community it serves.

In addition to continued and expanded community support, the library that is dedicated to collecting and expanding non-book materials will benefit from the changes that will take place in the overall philosophy of service of the library as an institution. As newer formats are acquired, there will be a need for the creation of and update to institutional policies and procedures, forcing the organization to constantly rethink the ways in which it serves its patrons. There has been much hand-wringing of late by a library industry worried about its future survival. Kay Cassell and Uma Hiremath sum it up with the notion that “Should we fail to take the mutations of our environment into account, we will relegate our libraries to obsolescence” (Cassell & Hiremath, 2007). Libraries that maintain multiple formats, not just books, and are directed by policies with a freshness driven by service centered change, will continue to flourish in the future whatever that landscape may be.


References


Bierbaum, Esther Green. "Realia, the Medium". 01 Dec 2007 http://www.informatics.buffalo.edu/faculty/ellison/Syllabi/519.


Cassell, K., U. Hiremath, “The Future of Reference.” Public Libraries v. 46 no. 1 (January/February 2007) p. 10-12.

Ellison, J.W.,Robinson, J.S, "Information, Not Books". 01 Dec 2007 http://www.informatics.buffalo.edu/faculty/ellison/Syllabi/519.


Fialkoff, F., “What's So Bad About Books?” Library Journal, v. 131 no. 1 (January 2006) p. 8.


Van Fleet, Connie, and Karen E. Antell. "Creating Cyberseniors: Older Adult Learning and Its Implications for Computer Training." Public Libraries. v. 41 no. 3 (May/June 2002) 149-55.