A Patron’s Perspective On Library 2.0

Via Maison Bisson (Who also wrote about L2 here.)

A reprint of an incredible article written by a library user:

The University’s Reading and Writing Center is housed in the library, and the planning board for the library has just completed designs for bringing in a coffee shop, similar to Starbuck’s, onto the library’s ground floor. The entire building now is wireless, meaning you can take your laptop into the coffee shop, drink a cup of Joe, and surf the library at UCLA, or the Sorbonne, or Harvard — at least in principle. You can also pop in a DVD and watch a movie, or you can download music from any number of sources, grabbing rap, jazz, or classical as the mood strikes you. And nobody, by the way, is going to worry overmuch if you happen to spill a little of your bagel on a book you’ve borrowed. The former sacredness of library collections, governed by the severe librarians who served as priests, is finally being deflated.

Amen!