NextGen: What Drives You?

The way I see it, there are two major drives that motivate librarians. One is a desire to organize information so that they're in greater control of an unpredictable world. To those motivated by this drive, librarianship is a duty because the world is an unpredictable place badly in need of order.

The second drive is rooted in the need to offer users better access to information. For those motivated by this drive, the world will never be fully cataloged; librarianship is a duty because we want to empower people with the tools and knowledge to find and order information in ways that work for them.

Surely, all librarians are motivated by a little of both of these drives (and probably a few others as well) at different points in their careers. After all, everyone benefits from a safe, orderly world. Yet, we all also want liberty in the information world we're now building. I wonder if Melvil Dewey was motivated more by the need to control and organize or by a desire to offer better access? How about S.R. Ranganathan or David Weinberger? More importantly, how about you?

If you're a First Drive Librarian, you are probably great at executing current policies and keeping the bureaucracy moving like clockwork. For almost any problem that develops, a First Driver can usually solve it by the book. They are dependable, predictable, and steady leaders. But they can also be stubborn and sorely resistant to change. Standing so firmly on the knowledge of the way things have always been can make you strong, but how well are you able to adapt when unknown factors challenge your assumptions about library service or when you are asked to address new community needs?

If you're more of a Second Drive Librarian, you are probably comfortable putting the end user first. You have no fear of new technologies, you embrace new tools, and you are probably handy at switching among various gadgets and diverse media to get at information and make it usable for your patrons. But does the desire to grok quickly and adopt the cutting edge shift you away from solid principles and technique?

With so much of the library future in question, one thing is now perfectly evident: we cannot risk clinging to old models while our competitors pass us by. The tighter we hold on to old, red-tape-heavy ways of doing things, the more we risk not only stifling the visionary talent in our profession but also turning our patrons against us. However, in our wild web world, we cannot risk abandoning the principles that have served us so well for so long.

Let's be clear: Library 2.0, at its core, is a “second drive” project. As we head into 2008, the challenge for librarians, and that includes everyone who reads this column, whether a veteran administrator or a recent graduate looking for that first job, is increasingly to show users how to get information and to teach them how to evaluate it. For generations, librarians have made good use of Dewey, Ranganathan, and “first drive” models like hierarchical taxonomies. Library 2.0, however, demands things like mobile, contextual, social networking tools. It demands that we accept that users have new expectations about information retrieval, that we guide patrons because we are experts rather than gatekeepers, and that we plant ourselves further upstream in the process.

The challenges for the future are complex, and our strategy for meeting them can't be one that divides us along generational lines. First Drive or Second Drive, NextGen or Old Guard, it will all be meaningless if we can't work well together toward a solid future for libraries.

If we are to shepherd libraries into the 21st century safely intact and still relevant, we must recognize our weaknesses and build on our strengths. Some Second Drive Librarians may get impatient and want to floor the gas pedal, ignoring all road signs. Some First Drive Librarians, on the other hand, may want to idle the engine in closed stacks full of unused tomes.

But if you watch your patrons with their iPhones, NextGen really doesn't seem so next any more. It's more like now. The real question is: How many of us will be content to be mere passengers?

No matter which drive drives you, the future demands that we blaze a common trail. That means that the old motivations that have driven and in many ways still drive the profession must converge with new ways of thinking. Our bedrock skills such as information evaluation, community building, and critical thinking about our information sources will only become more potent and more valuable, and all of us, old guard First Drivers and newly minted NextGens, must embrace and adapt our skills. Ultimately, our true, common challenge is not promoting library 2.0 but making sure that libraries—and librarians—will still be relevant in the 3.0 world and beyond.