Services before content.(THE USER EXPERIENCE)

I LIKE P-BOOKS AND EBOOKS. I like movies. I like music. What's more, I think these things have a place in our libraries and have played a crucial role in their evolution. I'm afraid, though, that the pervasive concept of library as commercial content provider is preventing us from adapting and evolving. Libraries will have to build a new foundation if they are to recover from these economic hard times--a foundation of valuable services, of user experience, not just free content.

Free content for all

The traditional warehouse model is seductive in economic hard times: libraries circulate more items, providing a convenient metric to demonstrate importance via usage. But this is the most shallow way libraries can demonstrate value--and looking at all of the budget cuts across the country, legislators …