The Future of Library Work, according to St. Louis Librarian Arthur E. Bostwick
Jessica FibelstadINFO 266 - Spring 2019
Perhaps the favourite article I stumbled across in JSTOR dates from 1918 and offers the author's vision of libraries in the year 1950. His prognostication of the future library requiring a patron-centric operation and prioritization of outreach to non-users. Some of this is downright eerie in its familiarity!
His factors of a positive operation are:
1. Size of the libray's physical establishment: Awareness of the geographic and socioeconomic conditions that may limit patronage, and Cost: another limiting factor
2. Professionalization: Development of industry standards and respect for the profession
3. Popularization: Opening libraries for "the many, not the few....provid[ing] something for EVERYONE who can read..and picture books for those who cannot." (thank goodness more imaginative thoughts have come along)
4: Socialization: People use libraries for more than reading - they need spaces for meetings and other activities of groups
5. Nationalization: Regulation and identity as a public fixture, like public schools, in the eye of the government.
Isn't this fascinating? Over 100 years ago these standards were philosophized upon. These same factors pop up in many contemporary policies, and articles regarding needs assessments. Becoming familiar with the library's heritage of great thinkers is a fantastic thing. Thank you, JSTOR.
Arthur E. Bostwick, ALA President 1907-1908
Reference:
Bostwick, A.E. (1918). The future of library work. Bulletin of the American Library Association, 12(3), 50-57.
Photograph:
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