Library of the Future - A Place to Create & Access Knowledge - San Antonio Public Library Foundation

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Above is a picture of a Columbian codex from the World Digital Library. This image housed within the World Digital Library network is an expression of the future of libraries—digital, networked, open, cultural, artistic, ancient, and futuristic. As part of hosting the Mayor’s International Summit on Libraries, San Antonio convened a Global Library Summit at the request of Mayor Julian Castro. Upon reflecting on the summit, some of the San Antonio Public Library questions included: (1) What have we learned about future library designs from our international peers? (2) Which library audience do we begin with in creating the future in San Antonio? and, (3) What history and culture do we have to offer in the context of future design and innovation?

International peers in China, South Korea, and England all found their voices in the context of asking questions about their history, their culture, their patrons, and their possible futures. They also are all centrally concerned with creativity. We should expect that San Antonio has a similar story, hidden in our historical legacy and our pathway to the future. We can, in short, expect that our pathway to what is next in libraries will be our own—a story told in our voice and our unique legacy to the future.

What has San Antonio learned about future library designs from our international peers?

The library of the future is the place of today. The relevant library connects science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the arts, humanities, and career development by beginning a conversation about the future and its possibilities. Libraries support the intersection of information and action—human collaboration. Libraries are the essential “conveners” of the future and are more important than ever in a world of increasing information overload and noise.

Libraries are the place of human and social development and a place for the growth and preservation of the works of generations. The role of libraries—as it always has been—is to provide a place where community members can come together. Libraries are a place for all generations and embody the benefits afforded by information to each child and adult in a free society.

In Birmingham, England, the new library is central to the city’s future design and renewal. The Library of Birmingham development is a flagship project of the Big City Plan, focusing on the regeneration of the city—the most far-reaching city center development project ever undertaken in the United Kingdom. The Big City Plan will drive forward the next 20 years of development in central Birmingham, and the library is a center of community development, design planning, and the place of coming together.

The expression of the library as the “the city’s living room” creates a new space for civil discourse in a world of disappearing spaces and conversations. This is perhaps the key to understanding the future library as the place of today—rather than an idealized past.

Library of Birmingham

In Medellin, Colombia, a city once fractured by violence, the library—a 2009 recipient of the Gates Foundation “Access to Learning” Award—has become a powerful symbol of community building. In the early 2000’s, government officials, community leaders, and residents gathered to design and create their new future. Their plan included using technology to increase the transparency of government, develop a competitive business environment, and improve education.

As a country with a young and growing population, China is investing heavily in public libraries to support public education, innovation, and wealth supporting the creation of entrepreneurship. China develops libraries to appeal to specific audiences, and often specific economic development opportunities for cities and regions. In Shenzhen for example, there is a library that connects with local jewelry, printing, and fashion industries. For the Shanghai World’s Fair, the library transformed itself into a cultural research center, global world’s fair, and a technology futures research and design lab for the design, construction, and management of the World’s Fair, in addition to designing the next generation of the city of Shanghai.

Shanghai World’s Fair Design

Next Generation Shanghai Design

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LIBRARY DO?

The role of the library in all of these examples is to serve as a place for convening the future. Today we live within an historical shift where global forces are changing local experiences, possibilities, and economies. In this new world, the library is a dynamic, physical, and virtual space for personal and communal development and creativity—a shift from just a place for solitude and knowledge to one of knowledge creation. Like the modern technopolis, the library is a place of creating what is next.

The modern library is a place—virtual and physical. The virtual library is the network of patrons from all walks of life whose experiences define the library in a social context. The physical library is made up of the wires and computers and stacks and books and walls and concrete. The information age has redefined the media of the modern library.

In 1995 when the Internet reached a point of mass absorption and growth, pundits declared the death of geography. Today geography and digital maps have coalesced with the global positioning system (GPS), and have redefined everything in our lives from warfare to marketing. Similarly, the modern library—both physical and virtual—is more important than ever. The key break with the past is that the information age brings a new medium into the library. This medium affects the mode of interaction with the library for both patrons and librarians.

National Digital Library of South Korea—a dibrary

The technological medium that now engages the library calls for a unification of information and action—praxis—social action. The modern library, as we learned from our congress of library innovation with the support of our visionary young mayor, is the connection in practice among South Korea, China, Birmingham, and Colombia as libraries of the future engage the community in a conversation. Future libraries follow through by creating the spaces for these conversations. They support the research needs of the community in the design process for what is next. And perhaps most profoundly, future libraries become curators of local history as well as a place to make history. This history-making includes writing new histories, celebrating local cultures, and harvesting the oral history and stories of the community in order to build a bridge between the past, present, and future.

The Information Age makes the library an important space in a world of disappearing spaces and conversations. Brian Gambles, Assistant Director of Culture, Birmingham City Council, says, “Libraries represent the memory and identity of a city. Today, as a global city, Birmingham needs its new library to encapsulate its soul, its optimism, and its rich culture, and to meet the demands of progressive library services for all.” The library is memory, it is cultural beacon, and it is a place of coming together. In the information age, it is both the humanity and the technology that makes the library a center of modern activity and discourse.

Technologically, the library represents the rights and freedoms that are available to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. Communally, the library is a space where these freedoms can be understood and ultimately expressed. San Antonio’s future and the future of civil discourse depend on the preservation of culture, history, art, and literature—across physical and cyber worlds. One can always understand the future by looking to the past—in the past is a template, a heart beat and an angle of momentum. What I see when I look back on San Antonio’s history is a little-big town on the verge of what is next demographically, financially, educationally, socially, politically, and globally.

TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS - iCivics, the game from Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

OPEN SOURCE - FREE

iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. iCivics is the vision of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is concerned that students are not getting the information and tools they need for civic participation, and that civics teachers need better materials and support.

iCivics, the game from Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

In iCivics, players explore SkyCity that uses the American legal system, but has regions of lawlessness where specific civil rights are violated. The player meets people who have civil rights cases that must be resolved. After a player takes a case, the player finds case cards to support their defense.

SAN ANTONIO: HEART OF INNOVATION
1910-2010-2110

San Antonio’s culture and history of innovation from 1910-2010 sets a precedent for what is to follow in the next century—2010 to 2110. Today, San Antonio continues its pursuit of the heavens. One example is Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which is responsible for the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS). Today, CAPS is measuring Saturn's magnetosphere which is engulfing the orbits of Titan, and most of the ringed planet's icy moons, as well as its famous rings. Founded in 1947, SwRI has 3,200 staff, 2 million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops, and offices. Total revenue for fiscal year 2009 was $564 million.

Since Benjamin Foulois first leaped into the air at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio has been at the forefront of science and technology development. San Antonio’s spirit, however, was forged by a struggle for independence and the realities of a rugged existence that required vision, integrity, and ingenuity to survive. San Antonio is a “can-do” place where goals often reach beyond the grasp of what is thought to be possible. This is the spirit of San Antonio—the spirit that transformed a once agrarian town into a preeminent center of science and technology innovation—the spirit of the maverick.