NYPL's Chief Digital Officer Says Public is Better off When Libraries Are 'Risk Averse' About Tech (geekwire.com)

New York Public Library's Tony Ageh was recently in Seattle to talk about libraries' digital transformation. Ageh made the point that tech now permeates pretty much all of a library's operations, from ebooks and article databases, to systems for checking out materials and tracking fines. Still, don't look for your library to be on the bleeding edge of digital. From a report: "What I previously imagined was a weakness I think is a strength, which is that libraries have been very reluctant to move too quickly and have allowed the marketplace and allowed other organizations to kind of prove things work before libraries have taken the plunge," said Ageh, who before joining NYPL oversaw internet and archive efforts at the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

"I think that has actually inoculated us against waste or harmful behavior." That kind of fad-or-trend, wait-and-see behavior appears to generally suit libraries well. "Librarians are incredibly risk averse," he said. "I think they do care very much about patrons and about the impact that their work does, and so we're very unlikely to take a chance when we're dealing with public money and when we're dealing with patrons; we have a personal relationship with them."

Comments

Philosophy

[Sarten-X]

There's a disagreement in philosophy here, and it seems Mr. Ageh has touched on both sides.

On the one hand, there's the idea that libraries should be open doors to all knowledge and experiences. Cutting-edge technology is crucial to this effort, because a significant portion of the modern human experience exists outside of what can be cataloged in books. Most libraries now hold audio or video collections, but only a few host video games (and the systems to play them). Sure, they offer public access to the Web, but the librarians aren't likely going to give you a guided tour of reddit's contributions to popular humor.

On the other hand, libraries are inextricably coupled with archives. By their nature, libraries have a duty to ensure that their collections are accessible in the future, and that means librarians have to consider the costs of adding a new technology to their collection. A book is simple - just place it on a shelf, and it will stay there... ...unless there are insect, environmental, indexing, or space problems that render the text inaccessible. A DVD full of ebooks avoids a few of those risks, but introduces a few new ones like formatting and equipment dependencies. For each new technology, there's a new set of requirements, and that means a new set of challenges for the already-overburdened library staff.

Librarians work toward the idealism of open access to everything for everyone, but unfortunately the reality of budget cuts and physical reality get in the way. Risk-averse decisions are really the only way to maximize the impact of the resources a library has.