Welcome and Introduction
Libraries of the Future. The rise digital age is changing the way libraries serve the public. It's not "Just about the books" anymore. Do these phrases sound familiar? With the dawn of Maker Spaces, technology courses and new technology emerging in 3D Printing, digital design, and virtual and augmented realities libraries have begun to play a strong role in introducing these technologies to the public and it's gaining notice (Agresta, 2014). People debate whether or not the library will remain relevant or have to completely adapt in order to keep up with the pace of technology. Can the library keep up with the minimal funding it receives? Supposedly, this phenomenon is a new issue or opportunity for the modern library. But I've discovered that while libraries haven't been perceived as technological voyagers for very long, it's been happening longer than what a lot of people have been led to believe. Libraries have been introducing new technology to the public for the past several decades. It's possible that I could've traced this back as early as the invention of the public telephone, however, I narrowed my focus to the emergence of the computer through today, approximately from 1940s-present.
I believe that the invention of the computer not only changed library service, but changed how the entire world operated. It's arguably one of the greatest inventions of all time and it may not have been that way if it weren't for the efforts that were made to make computers smaller and accessible by the everyday person. I believe libraries played a large role in this task. Libraries had to make difficult decisions about computers, how to use them with the public, and how to train the public on how to use them. They also had to confront and help pioneer solutions to several problems that surfaced with allowing the public to use computers, and later the internet. For my project I looked for several details to answer my research questions listed here:
Methods
I think that this research is important because not a lot has been done to provide a general overview of how technology entered the daily operations of libraries. You can't simply search in a database for "The First Library Public Computer" and expect to get results (I tried). I also believe it is important to understand the whole picture of technology in libraries before making assumptions that the library may not be able to handle the new digital age of today. Rayward explains this well, "In trying to come to grips with what is happening, to assess what is possible and desirable in planning for the future, libraries need to be understood in the historical context within which they have been created and developed as outlined here. Such an understanding is not so much valuable in preventing the repetition of past mistakes, one of the functions often attributed to history; it is to begin to know more fully what libraries are for and how they work." (Rayward, 2002). Libraries have had more years of practice in this area than one may believe because I think public access to a desk top computer has been taken for granted. Almost anyone can get access to a computer and the internet, and that's largely in part to how much demand there is for free public computer access in libraries. Computer classes, computer stations and labs are one of the most important services libraries can offer and something in the past had to have influenced the decision to pilot that service years ago.
For my project, I wanted to be able to get first hand accounts from some veteran librarians who worked in the library system when computers were first introduced. Unfortunately, the timing and availability of people didn't work out so that may have to be saved for another research venture some day. Therefore, most of my research has been scouring the internet and databases for articles, in particular, old news articles and magazine articles that documented exactly what libraries were going through during this period and hopefully dig up a few photos. The strengths of this method were that I was able to collect and piece together enough information to address my research questions. The challenges I faced were heavy at the beginning, to the point that I almost scrapped this project. Many articles I initially found were too recent and there wasn't a lot of research done on this subject to begin with. It wasn't until I had a stroke of luck with some back issues of the New York Times that I finally found a primary source article with some helpful terminology that guided the rest of my search. At that point, finding primary sources from older issues of the Library Journal, American Library Association and the New York Times came easily.
When I got to the period of the invention of the internet, I almost had too much information to field through so that was another challenge. Part of the reason that I believe I had difficulty finding sources at first was that a lot of articles in the past are similar to articles in the present: "Modern libraries." "Libraries of the future". Still sound familiar? Those headlines have been in use since the 70s and are now my personal nightmare. Due to the nature of the information I found, I don't have a lot of exact dates for when certain things happened. That's what I mean by a "general overview" of this history of computers in libraries. For example, an article I may use in this project will say that in 1783, this library began lending x, y, z. I have no proof of when the first computer was used in a library, or when exactly libraries started using internet. I can only go off of what was true for whatever library(ies) is the subject of the artifacts I found. I have done my best to make sure this is clear in my writing so that there is no misinformation: "It was around the early eighties (approx, 1980-83) when ___ emerged." etc. Despite these limitations I had, I was able to glean a lot of helpful information that not only addresses my research questions but also provides an understanding of how libraries influenced the growth of technology and in turn, how computers evolved library service to what we know today.