You can teach old dogs new tricks. After many decades of browsing, reading, sleeping, whispering and learning in libraries, I recently discovered something very new about libraries generally, the libraries in Maryland, and our own Carroll County Public Library system.
Libraries arose shortly after the creation of the first written documents thousands of years ago. As civilizations rose and fell, libraries held their accumulated knowledge, built with precious local resources, sometimes destroyed during wars, revolutions and the collapse of kingdoms and empires. Sometimes the accumulated knowledge held within was lost for all time. Other times, precious documents were rescued, copied, transferred to other collections, transmitting ancient wisdom through the centuries to the present. That might mean manuscripts stored in clay jugs in a cave in the desert, or it might mean laborious copying in scriptoriums by religious orders hidden away in monasteries. From the Fertile Crescent, across the Mediterranean, all over Asia, and eventually across Europe, each century saw the accumulation, reproduction, storage and circulation of written knowledge.
In each age, in each culture, the methods for preserving, storing and transmitting that knowledge changed with times, technology and resources. Paintings on walls gave way to mud tablets, gave way to inks on papyrus, then sheepskin, wood carvings, scrolls, folded manuscripts, bound manuscripts, stored for better or worse in the best people could manage at the time. Always, moisture, insects, rodents, heat, mold, flames and general carelessness took a relentless toll.
Gutenberg's printing press created an explosion of book making, ushering in the long boom of education and scientific advancements, as well as revolution, social upheaval and transformation.
Today, our libraries in Carroll County are on the cutting edge of technologies to preserve and communicate knowledge. Carroll County Public Library was an early adopter of high-speed data networks, offering free wi-fi and access to global databases, document retrieval and lending networks. Carroll libraries sponsor computer programming classes, robotics demonstrations and our Westminster branch is planning a massive, state-of-the-art Makerspace. Building on and collaborating with the successful and innovative Ting Makerspace across the street, the Westminster branch is well along in the design and engineering of an even bigger and better space for experimentation and innovation for our community.
The libraries are also exploring exciting new technologies in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) and have cool projects on the horizon demonstrating how those technologies can preserve and disseminate knowledge farther and wider.
This is the thing I didn't understand until now: libraries aren't just quiet places to find an interesting new (or old) book, where you are shushed by a stern librarian for being too noisy. They are hubs of innovation, staffed by people passionate about and dedicated to the protection and sharing of knowledge for everyone, which only makes us all better citizens, strengthens the community, and connects the present to the future and the past.
Stay tuned! Many exciting things coming to a library near you.
Robert Wack writes from Westminster, where he serves on the Common Council. He can be reached at robert.p.wack@gmail.com.
