Richard Minsky shared this wonderful video with the Arlis listserve today. The question for space planners that I pose is this: Are libraries and librarians still to be keepers of, and therefore, keeping books? Are libraries shelters from the technology storm? Should the library hold strong and fast to the notion that we are perhaps the last sanctuary for people and books and therefore the one last place where people can come to get enriched through reading (books in print)?

OR

Do we embrace the information tidal wave? Do we thoughtfully evolve? Do we rid ourselves of books so as to entice the new generation into our spaces. Does it matter if stories are not on the pages of a book, but rather, on the pages of a device? And…if we don’t have books in print…are we still a library, or have we become something else? Perhaps those that don’t have books should no longer be called a library, but rather a literary center, an information commons, or a computer lab? Food for thought.

—