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What Does the Library of the Future Look Like?
What Does the Library of the Future Look Like?
In the past fifty years, libraries have undergone quite the transformation thanks to emerging technologies, and they will continue to do so in the future. No longer are libraries just places that house physical materials, but they are much-needed spaces for people to gather or work. Furthermore, as things ever increasingly become digital, a trend that was accelerated even more thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries will need to keep up with the demand and offer appropriate resources and programs to help their communities to adjust and learn how to live in a digital world. Even more importantly, the emerging use of artificial intelligence (AI) has great potential, and libraries will need to embrace and develop guidelines for its use in order to not only effectively harness its potential but also help their communities utilize it in their lives.
The library of the future (Tanzi, 12-28-2023)
What Does the Future Hold for MPL?
What Does the Future Hold for MPL?
As Muncie Public Library advances into the future, we will always continue to serve the needs and interests of the community we support as it evolves. We emphasize lifelong learning, and that will continue to be important in a digital world that has no journalistic accountability, positioning libraries at the forefront of helping people distinguish between credible information and misinformation or harmful disinformation. Our meeting rooms and study spaces continue to be in high demand, which may impact MPL’s collections and the layout of our library buildings. In fact, our collections are already changing with the addition of a library of things to check out that includes items such as a sewing machine and gardening tools to provide a few examples. Technology will continue to play a part in how MPL moves into the future, and AI will definitely become very important within that future. Do we know what it will look like? Not at this point, but if we think creatively and out of the box, who knows what we could accomplish.
Will MPL Ever Be a Countywide Library?
Will MPL Ever Be a Countywide Library?
The lack of a countywide library in Delaware County is a source of frustration for many residents that live outside of Center Township, Muncie Public Library’s taxing district. It’s also something that the library has tried to institute a number of times using the Library Law of 1947, which allows for the library board of any library district to declare its consent to extend library service within the county on a tax-supported basis with accompanying petitions of at least 5% of residents registered to vote. They are then certified by the Voter Registration Board and submitted to each respective township advisory and town boards. Said petitions must be publicized and given an opportunity for remonstrance within ten days after publication. Unfortunately, the remonstrance has always outweighed the support for expanding Muncie Public Library into the whole county.
The bookmobile used for the Delaware County Library Demonstration in 1963-1964 and bought with funds from a Library Service and Construction Act grant (MPL Archives).
MPL came very close to being a countywide library after two such attempts, the bookmobile demonstration of 1963-1964 and the countywide library experiment of 1991-1992. In the early sixties, Muncie Public Library staff and Board of Trustees felt that they had a civic obligation to fill a long-standing need for a library within the county, especially for students. In 1962, a Library Service and Construction Act grant awarded funds to be administered by the Indiana State Library for a bookmobile, librarian, clerk, a driver, books, and supplies. Service began on January 1, 1963, and within four days, then Director Leon Jones reported 300 new registrations! By March 1964, 9,200 people had registered for cards, and MPL was ready to put a countywide library to community vote. It failed with 1,800 voters in favor of a countywide library while 2,800 voters were against it. MPL dismantled the demonstration by the end of 1964 and sent the LSCA bookmobile, books, and supplies to Valparaiso for a demonstration in Porter County.
In 1988, the Muncie Public Library Board with the aid of an outside library consultant came up with a priority list of steps to update and change the library. One of these steps was the introduction of a county-wide library service. The next year, Muncie Public Library representatives began speaking to town and school boards within the townships to see what sort of response they would have to county library service, and it was favorably received. Some of the benefits included access to Muncie Public Library’s collections for all who register as well as the state interlibrary loan network, reciprocal borrowing privileges to other state public libraries, access to programs, and ease of library use with seven locations and a bookmobile. If the libraries were successful, then residents of each township could vote on whether to keep them on a tax-supported basis.
Jim Davis and Garfield were special guests of the Muncie Symphony Orchestra on March
In order to include the community in the planning and promotion process, a committee was formed, the Delaware County Library Advisory Committee. This group “included three school superintendents, a community activist from the largest town outside Muncie, a school principal, a well-known businessman, a judge, a member of the League of Women Voters, a farmer, and several honorary chairs” (October FOCUS, County Demo box, Publicity, Published material), one of whom was “Garfield” cartoonist Jim Davis who lent his name to the project.
Thanks to a Library & Services Construction Act grant, county library service began on September 4, 1990 and plans to place libraries in each township in Delaware County proceeded in the following locations: Yorktown, Eaton, Albany, Selma, Gaston, Daleville, and Cowan. These library locations opened throughout the spring and summer of 1991 with the exception of Cowan since a suitable location could not be found within the town.
Wright Memorial Library, located on Smith Street in Yorktown, opened on March 18, 1991. Dr. T.S. Wright provided the building to the library rent-free. In the 1930s, his grandfather Dr. Carl Wright practiced medicine in the building.
Eaton Community Library opened on April 3, 1991 and was housed in a building adjacent to the Pizza King on Harris Street.
Albany Community Library opened on June 10, 1991 and occupied a former drugstore on State Street.
Daleville Community Library opened on June 24, 1991 thanks to the people of Daleville who were very generous in providing labor and materials for renovating and furnishing the building. It was located on South Walnut Street.
Selma Community Library opened on July 1, 1991 in a former home just off of State Road 32 on the west edge of town.
The last to open on July 22, 1991, Gaston Community Library was located in the downtown area on Elm Street.
By the end of 1991, approximately 25% of the county’s population outside of Center Township were registered library users, and a total of 39,651 books were checked out within the six county libraries.
Melissa Curtis reads a story to daughter Melea at the new Eaton Public Library during a community open house (MPL Archives, 04-20-1991).
A family visits the new Wright Memorial Library in Yorktown (MPL Archives, 04-15-1991).
Muncie Public Library's newsletter MPLNow! advertised the petition effort to drum up support for a countywide library (MPL Archives, 04-1992).
Again, MPL had to go through the voting process to continue to offer countywide library service. From April 1 to election day on May 5, volunteers circulated the petitions and gathered signatures while the library also promoted a poster contest among students in the county districts. However, when election day came, each township voted against continuing the county library service, and the county libraries were dismantled by the end of 1992. In a letter to the Delaware County Library Advisory Committee, Director Patricia Schaefer stated, “With this latest experience I am fairly well convinced that public library service for Delaware County is forever a dead issue” (Schaefer, 06-30-1992). Since then, there have been no other attempts to establish a countywide library service within Delaware County even though many who step into MPL often ask for it.
Once the county libraries closed, the collection of materials from each of the libraries was distributed to the following places: Area Six Council on Aging, Ball Memorial Hospital Pediatrics, Cambridge House, Delaware County Children’s Home, Delaware County Health Center, Delaware County Jail, Headstart, Motivate Our Minds (MOM), Open Door Community Services, South Walnut Day Care Center, and Westminster Village.
Despite the failure to establish countywide library service, this initiative was the first time in the history of the county that libraries existed outside of Muncie, and by the end of it, more than 30% of the county population had registered for library cards. It fulfilled a real need and gave county residents easy access to a library for a two year time period. Yorktown’s library also grew out of the initiative, and Muncie Public Library has a reciprocity agreement with that institution, meaning that those who have a MPL card can also get a Yorktown Public Library card and vice versa.
Top left to right: Eaton Community Library, Albany Community Library; Bottom left to right: Wright Memorial Library (Yorktown), Gaston Community Library, Selma Community Library, Daleville Community Library (MPL Archives, 1991)
Gary Bartling talks about the Yorktown and Eaton Community Libraries begun by MPL and where they are today.
Since the 1991-1992 countywide library experiment, there have been no other attempts to establish a countywide library service within Delaware County even though many who step into MPL often ask for it. Many often ask, “What can we do to help Muncie Public Library become a library for all of Delaware County?” It takes community action and political involvement. Talk to your County Council members and advocate for the importance and benefit of having a library within your community.
Our Community Holds the Key.
Our Community Holds the Key.
Muncie Public Library is here to serve our Muncie-Center Township community, so, in essence, MPL’s future is determined by you. Many of the initiatives that the library has undertaken over the years have been in response to an organization or someone asking us if we can help or do this or that. It just takes an idea and action.
What do you want to see at the library? What community initiatives do you think the library should be part of? Let us know by clicking here.
Sources
Sources
Banks, Kelly. "The Future of Libraries Is Upon Us. Here's How Yours Can Keep Pace." (01-22-2024). PressReader. https://blog.pressreader.com/libraries-institutions/future-of-libraries-is-upon-us
"County Library Service Update." (June 1991). MPLNow, vol. XXII, no. 6. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
"First Two County Libraries Open." (May 1991). MPLNow, vol. XXII, no. 5. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
"From the Directors." (July 1992). MPLNow, vol. XXIII, no. 7. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
"From the Directors." (June 1992). MPLNow, vol. XXIII, no. 6. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
Kirby, Kathy. "Library Service May Go Countywide." (04-12-1989). Muncie Evening Press. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
“Minutes: Muncie Public Library Board, 1961-1963.” MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
“Minutes: Muncie Public Library Board, 1964-1966.” MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
“Minutes: Muncie Public Library Board, 1989-1990.” MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
“Minutes: Muncie Public Library Board, 1991-1992.” MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
"Muncie Public Library: Open for Countywide Service" brochure. (1991). Countywide Demo. MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
"Now Is the Time!" (April 1992). MPLNow, vol. XXIII, no. 4. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
Schaefer, Patricia to Delaware County Library Advisory Committee correspondence (06/30/1992). Delaware County Library Advisory Committee. Countywide Demo. MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
Scrapbook. (1991). MPL Archives. Carnegie Library. Muncie Public Library.
Tanzi, Nick. "Library Tech Trends for 2024." (12-28-2023). The Digital Librarian. https://the-digital-librarian.com/2023/12/28/library-tech-trends-for-2024/
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