The Library - Good Bye Old Friend

Before sunrise at most Buddhist Temples an artist will carefully create a work of art out of colored sand. He or she will work for hours creating a composition of exceptional beauty carefully arranging the sand almost grain by grain. Upon completion, the artist places the work in front of the main entrance. Within minutes it is ruined by the in and outgoing traffic.

The purpose of this activity is to embrace temporariness. The only state that truly exists. Everything, even suns and planets, exist for a period of time, then they die. Nothing is permanent.

I love this concept. In today's modern world, we are constantly trying to hold on to things. It causes us stress and anxiety, because you can never really hold on to anything very long. It all goes. One way or another. Rather than fighting the inevitable, we, like the Buddhists, would find life more satisfying if we could learn to accept how things are.

Capitalism is a somewhat Buddhist construct because it allows companies to die and new ones to be born. It constantly revitalizes itself. This cyclicality has come to be known as creative destruction. To me, it is the key aspect to why, economically speaking, Capitalism works best.

Now lets consider libraries. I've always loved libraries. Now that I'm a writer, I love them even more. But, unfortunately, the useful life of libraries is coming to an end. Good bye old friend, I'll miss you.

Why? In the digital age where all the books of the world could fit on a device that fits in a briefcase, the need to house huge piles of bound paper is anachronistic. You want a book. Simply download it wirelessly to your ebook reader and you got a book. Libraries waste all kinds of natural resources - paper, energy etc. It doesn't make sense to have these lovely warehouses all over the place to store copies of tomes that are being stored in hundreds, if not thousands, of other places. Time to move on. Wipe those tears away and get over it.

My hope is that libraries are transformed into something else altogether. Something that we need and is useful - community and study centers. Many libraries are making the transition, but I think they need to step up the pace. The inevitable is the inevitable and getting with the program rather than fighting it is in everyone's best interest.

Here is one approach I like. A small library in Iowa has stopped purchasing books and periodicals. Its purging itself of all the old, unread books from its shelves. A select number of books are kept on around the perimeter as an interior decorating device. Good. Good. Then they are dividing all the space up into individual cavities and group rooms with one large community area. It provides wireless access, printers, ebook readers, helpful tech and content experts and most importantly to me, real comfortable chairs. Writing groups, book clubs and other meetings are set up on a calender that is, of course, accessable on line. One employee is in charge of scheduling lectures and readings and various artful activities. Discussion areas are encouraged in lounge-like areas. Coffee and drinks are available. Snacks and light meals too. Great job Iowa!

By vacating an old institutional concept that has little or no viability, we can solve a major problem that our digital world has spawned - lack of human interaction. I guess, if you want, you can still call it a library, but that would be like calling an eagle a horse. By calling it what it is, people will go there because they'll know what it is. Hey you marketing experts out there - come up with a name. Millions work on their own. If they could have a place to go to do their work and get the resources they need and the human contact they crave, it will be utilized and flourish. Maybe even be profitable.

This is not something anyone will need to go out and push for (though I wish they would). It'll happen on its own, one way or another. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I for one would like another place to go to run my businesses and write my stories. Iowa here I come.