Making Public Libraries More Relevant Than Ever

We interviewed Sari in August 2014. We asked her about how public libraries act as centers for lifelong learning. We also discussed how libraries of all kinds can collaborate and keep themselves relevant to users in the rapidly changing digital age.

PIL: Throughout your career, you have emphasized learning in libraries. You have been instrumental in spearheading a successful early literacy campaign, Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library and establishing adult education classes in your library system. While an education mission is clear for school and academic libraries, many people assume that public libraries are distinctly separate from these settings. How do public libraries foster lifelong learning? What is their unique role in helping people become continuous learners?

Sari: I’ve come to believe the distinctions we make within the library profession about library types are in many ways artificial. For our customers and patrons, school, public, and academic libraries are not very different. They are all places where people turn to read and learn. They are places where individuals or groups find qualified staff that inspire and support self-directed learning.

Today public libraries are uniquely and rather ideally positioned to advance digital readiness–a critical factor in lifelong learning. Libraries provide equitable access to Internet-connected devices and online content, but they also (and this is crucial) support the skill development needed to take advantage of the educational opportunities associated with technology. Ninety-eight percent of public libraries provide technology training on computers and content such as e-government tools.

The notion of lifelong learning is truly realized in the public library. Consider Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library: as a national early literacy program, its value is not only skill building for children but also introducing the parent/caregiver role in a child’s success. Sandra Feinberg of Family Place Libraries and I were writing and talking to our colleagues about the education value a decade before the library’s role in facilitating learning was starting to gain traction. Today, being at the center of self-directed and even formal education is a priority for public library service. 

PIL: A recent Pew study (2014) showed 30% of Americans are highly engaged with public libraries, while another 39% are moderately engaged. Moreover, researchers concluded that library use is highly correlated with life stages and related circumstances. It is good news for libraries. But as you have noted, we are most at risk of losing library users in the years between getting their driver’s license and having their first child. You have said, “Repositioning libraries to address the ever-changing digital content landscape will be essential to our future viability.” What innovative ways can young people be reached and kept informed of everything that is happening now in their public libraries?

Sari: Capturing those in the 18-24 age group is no doubt a challenge, so we must demonstrate the different ways in which libraries offer unique learning opportunities at every stage in life. This is part of the reason Cuyahoga County Public Library has shifted our focus for teens (those who will transition into the 18-24 demographic in the next 3-5 years) to “connected learning.” Our connected learning model recognizes that our young customers are less interested in our “stuff” (traditional library materials) and more interested in experiences. Connected learning is supported by the digital tools that libraries across the nation are beginning to offer: 3D printers, digital video equipment, green screens, animation labs, and self-publishing platforms. These tools provide opportunities for active learning where users create and share.

What’s key here is the sharing concept. The proliferation of businesses like Uber, Airbnb, and Quirky are quickly demonstrating a shift in attitudes toward ownership. The growth of what’s been dubbed the “sharing economy” reflects a trend that follows a familiar library model, where trust and access trump ownership. Millennials in particular are responsible for propelling the sharing economy forward based on their attitudes toward ownership and a desire to spend money on experiences instead of stuff. If the public library can demonstrate that it is a facilitator of engaging and energizing learning experiences, we will make our organizations increasingly attractive to a population that has been traditionally difficult to draw in.

PIL: PIL is currently conducting a two-year study of lifelong learning with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS). In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education commentary, we identified the growing need for a research skill we call knowledge in action: “a kind of athletics of the mind aided by Internet-enabled devices, search engines, and pools of data from a wide variety of outlets.” Even though we were talking about college students, this skill applies to lifelong learning because everyone has to swim through torrents of information in today’s world. How do you see public libraries playing a significant role with helping users find what they need to solve their 21st-century information problems? What work remains to be done?

Sari: The public library offers two elements that are particularly critical to lifelong learners when navigating information and responding to complex problems: trust and access. Libraries’ core values of confidentiality, privacy, and exceptional customer service create an environment of tremendous support for information seekers. Given the volume of information and data available today (IBM estimates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day from a variety of sources, including sensors, social media, and billions of mobile devices), our work as library professionals must adapt to an exponentially growing universe of information–and we have to teach others how to aggregate, analyze, and assimilate information from a variety of sources.

I think the next “big thing” for libraries to embrace in support of 21st century information opportunity and lifelong learning is “Big Data.” From a research and information perspective, Big Data provides rich opportunity to library professionals who are trained to manage information. Open source tools can allow academic researchers and, increasingly, more novice researchers to locate, scrub, connect, and re-use open data for new purposes. Where your work has identified college students as entering the workforce somewhat unprepared to conduct thoughtful and comprehensive research, I believe the ability to find and analyze the growing universe of available data will increasingly become an explicit skill that employers demand. Libraries can be the place where lifelong learners come for the tools to access Big Data and to find the expertise needed to leverage Big Data in solving global challenges. 

PIL: Your work has taken you beyond the borders of the United States. In 2009, you visited China, representing American libraries and library outreach at the First International Summit on Public Libraries. What did you take away from that experience and applied to your work here? How do you envision libraries can “share our inspiration with others around the world” over the next five years?

Sari: I believe that libraries are one of the great institutions that connect us as Americans and that reflect and strengthen the democratic ideals upon which our nation was created. But I also believe that the quest for knowledge through lifelong learning is a universal aspiration, and my international experiences with public libraries around the world reinforce that belief.

The ability to place the library at the center of digital access and digital readiness will clearly define the next phase of library-based learning on a global scale. Equitable access to Internet-connected devices and online content as well as the skill development needed to take advantage of the educational, economic, and social opportunities associated with technology positions the library as part of education and economic transformation. Our success as we build on access and training in the U.S. will be a model for developing countries around the world.

Further, our commitment to robust broadband for all Americans and for affordable access to digital content will be a model for even the most advanced countries to consider for its impact on learning, education, and equitable access. I also predict that the developed world will be looking to the U.S. when it comes to two key issues that have been a focus in ALA’s advocacy work–policies on net neutrality and federal legislative issues related to privacy and security. 

PIL: As the newly elected president of the American Library Association, you represent all kinds of libraries and librarians. In your vision and in a recent interview, you have said it is essential that we think of users asking, “what can the library do for me?” instead of “what does the library have for me?” Given this distinction, what are the three biggest challenges all types of libraries face today in remaining relevant? What should every librarian be mindful of when serving his or her community?

Sari: One of the biggest challenges for libraries today is to more clearly articulate our value in terms that are relevant in today’s information environment. I believe that we do ourselves a disservice when we allow our communities to view libraries as nostalgic throwbacks–as places that do not or should not change with the times. It’s not always popular to be the one advancing an organization in the direction of a new future when the present still clings to vestiges of the past, but we have to find the strength, look forward, and bring others along.

Libraries must recognize the disruptive trends impacting our global economy and redefining the concept of open access. We must use those trends to build new models of service and to recognize that embracing convenience, customer service, and content creation will be essential to our future viability.

I hope that librarians across the nation will recognize that the ALA can provide the learning, engagement, and support to advance the profession. In my new role as president-elect of the ALA, I plan to push our organization to better support innovation and to challenge all libraries to build a nation of readers and learners. 

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This year, Project Information Literacy (PIL) selected Sari Feldman for our “Leading Librarian Smart Talk Interview.” (For 2013, PIL’s leading librarian interview was Char Booth. For 2012, it was Barbara Fister.)

Sari Feldman lives in Cleveland, Ohio. She is executive director of Cuyahoga County Public Library, one of the most heavily used library systems in the nation. For the past five years, Sari’s library has been honored with Library Journal’s coveted five-star rating. She teaches graduate courses at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, where she is an award-winning lecturer. She is a past president of the Public Library Association (2009-2010).

Smart Talks are information conversations with leading thinkers about the challenges of educating and preparing college students to succeed in school, the workplace, and as lifelong learners in the digital age. The interviews are an occasional series, produced by Project Information Literacy (PIL).

PIL is an ongoing and national research study about how college students and recent graduates find and use information for courses and for use in their everyday lives. This interview with Sari Feldman was made possible with the generous support of a research grant from the Institute of Museum and Library sciences (IMLS), creating strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. Smart Talk interviews are open access and licensed by Creative Commons. 

Sari Feldman: “Making Public Libraries More Relevant than Ever” (email interview), by Sarah Evans and Alison J. Head, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 21 (3 September 2014), is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.