Reimagining libraries in the digital era
One of my favourite films growing up was The Pagemaster. The story is about a reclusive 10-year-old boy, Richard Tyler, who hardly uses his imagination and avoids new experiences at any cost. One day, Richard’s father asks him to get a supply of nails for the new treehouse he is building for his son. However, Richard finds himself in the middle of a fierce storm and takes cover in a public library. Unbeknownst to him, the library comes to life and snatches Richard into its fictional world. Aided by three books as companions, he embarks on a journey resembling fictional events in which he has to overcome challenges in order to exit the library. Ultimately, Richard learns that reading books can take him to places in life he has never imagined once before.
Two years ago, the UAE government announced its 10-year reading strategy as the first step towards creating a generation of book lovers. In 2016, a national reading survey was published, claiming that people in the UAE read only 1.5 books annually, highlighting that 78 per cent of Emirati adults are not active readers and that the average Emirati household had only 20 books, compared to 203 books in the United Kingdom. 73 per cent of parents do not read routinely, which is why students in the UAE read only four books annually, compared to the 40 books read by students in South Korea.
Of the countless initiatives that were announced to remedy this gap, I am most exhilarated about the opening of the new Mohammad Bin Rashid Library. Throughout civilisation, libraries held repositories of knowledge and so have played an important role in transforming lives and strengthening nations’ competitiveness. Libraries are special in that they are treasure vaults, giving equal access to citizens who want to educate themselves with valuable knowledge that could later translate into economic and social benefits. In today’s world, however, more is expected of us than to just read and write. As global citizens, we must endeavour to understand, think, articulate, invent, innovate, and imagine.
That is why libraries must reinvent themselves as more than just stocks of books, but rather they must create a community space for people to revel in the written word in all its forms. As with any other community space, it must compete on its service offerings to visitors. Modern libraries around the world have managed to win over visitors through savvy and diverse marketing strategies; such as designing architecturally unique buildings, providing easy access to digital collections, organising author visits and themed book clubs, offering play areas for children, holding art exhibitions and theatre productions of literary works, and housing trendy cafes.
Singapore has done exactly so. The National Library Board is a government agency that was established in 1995 to achieve this mission: “make knowledge come alive, spark imagination and create possibilities”. For a population of 5.6 million, it manages a network of 27 well-located public libraries, boasting 2.4 million library members (around 42 per cent of the population!). The National Reading Movement, launched in 2016, is a five-year campaign to get residents to read regularly, beyond their usual preferred genres, and to read together with family and friends. Libraries are also designed for the various audiences, such as children, teens, adults, and seniors. In fact, the Teens Library at the Jurong Regional Library was designed by teens and features young adult and comic books, a graffiti wall, bean bags, an open mike area for performances, and book clubs to discuss popular topics.
Six floors of books
The libraries also offer a rich programme of events, such as parent-child story hours, summer reading clubs for school-aged children, drama groups, poetry reading, and creative writing seminars.
Many commercial bookshops have modernised their operations in order to lure customers and public libraries have many lessons to extract from their experiences. A gorgeous example of this is the Waterstone’s bookstore in Piccadilly, London. Housed in an elegant art deco building, the store is Europe’s largest bookshop, occupying six floors full of books on every genre under the sun; fiction, children’s books, travel, history, business — you name it and they have something to delight you.
The place is always brimming with energy as it redesigns the shop floors to go with seasonal or thematic occasions, such as celebrating spring, Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday, Paddington film and book tie-ins, or holidays like Easter and Christmas. Add to that the friendly staff who are themselves voracious readers, the exciting events programme (author talks and signings), and the cozy cafe upstairs with a marvellous view of the hustling streets below.
I love the story of Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American business tycoon and philanthropist who transformed his life through books. As a child, he had access to the library of Colonel James Anderson, who generously allowed the local working boys in his residential area to borrow books from his collection. As an immigrant learning his way around in 19th century United States, Carnegie relied on his voracious appetite for reading to educate himself, allowing him to build a massive fortune in the steel industry. Consequently, he donated more than $55 million (Dh202 million) on founding 2,509 libraries around the world. Carnegie believed that “anyone with access to books and the desire to learn could educate himself or herself and be successful, as he had been”.
Libraries are thus in the business of engaging people in order to inspire them to discover their unique identities and how they can contribute to their communities. Knowledge and self-awareness that come from reading constitute the key to unlocking that potential. As Michael Embry had once said: “I don’t have to look far to find treasures. I discover them every time I visit a library.”
Published in Gulf News.
© Image credit: Audrey – Charming Fashion Theme