LibraryNext: Reference in 2052
John Gibson
Welcome to the library of the mid-twenty-first century. The “library” has evolved in some radical ways since the beginning of the century. It is much more connected to its resources; it is a marvel of technology. Libraries utilize equipment with self-powered screens that are impervious to destruction. Contents are displayed on these screens via touch-based interfaces with neural interconnects. New technologies have opened up new avenues of research in the library for those without systems at home (although lack of home access is now increasingly rare since computing devices are cheap and ubiquitous). Libraries provide virtual spaces where individuals and groups can meet through holograms or avatars. Privacy is preserved using acoustic dampers. Free online training programs from universities like MIT have continued to expand to include individuals who could not afford training and have evolved into transcontinental phenomena of academic support across the economic digital divide.
In the early millennium library, patrons typed their papers on QWERTY keyboards. They proofread their products by using primitive spell-checking software. During that era, scholars submitted their work for peer review prior to publication to determine their scholarly status. Now papers “self-heal” from errors, grammar is changed automatically, and individuals are able to utilize the “I am feeling lucky” filter on their research to have the results formatted properly in specific styles of documentation. Peer review is done collaboratively via wikis on the web. Access and use of images has also been vastly improved. Google’s Picasa image editor allows users to perform a single-step fix for poorly exposed photos. Seamlessly integrated research and editing tools now allow scholars of all levels to produce correctly formatted, properly cited papers and collaboratively edited works.
The acts of research and writing have been revolutionized. Individuals can simply think ideas and then popular resources are made available to them both visually and audibly via their computing devices. In this projected future, “The planet has been Googled” (Auletta 2009, 282). Technology once used to help wounded soldiers operate prosthetic limbs or interact with computer systems via brain waves has been refined, introduced into the commercial market, and sold to the public. Data retrieval, once seen as a form of searching for information, is now a faster and more refined intuitive process done via thought in many cases. With the use of special neurotransmitters, a query to a virtual GPS (global positioning system) unit or search engine is now visually and electronically evident to the user via an apparatus of integrated information or as visible public displays. The hologram interface that people use to control their smart devices essentially derives from early technologies like those seen in the CNN election coverage of 2008 using 360BrandVision (Vilardell 2008).
Users are now directly connected to the services that they need instantaneously and on demand. Librarians have instant access to most data collections worldwide. The public demanded information freedom in much the same way that they demanded political freedom in the past. One of the first times this yearning for freedom was observed was during the original SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act; Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act) laws of 2012, a time when the legislative branch of the government tried to enact expanded powers over the Internet. It was then that the public stood up with several corporations in a democratic process to convince the government that the preservation of the open Internet was a vital goal to the people (Lee 2012). During this era, it was recognized that information is power and that society needs to have both free and fair access. Librarians are no longer restricted to small data sets; they can help patrons instantly and with ease. Groups of trainers are available to add to assisted artificial intelligence (AI) interfaces that field generic questions that do not require emotional evaluation or untested theories.
Wireless is now free universally and its speed is now adaptive to the needs of the research. In the past, everyone was given “pipeline access” for sending and receiving data. The “pipe” was essentially a fixed size and would limit people based on their Internet service provider (ISP) setup and monthly payment plan. Now everyone shares equally and proportionally the amount of available bandwidth. Data determines packet traversal of information on the Internet. In the past, similar services existed, such as quality-of-service streams, which could prioritize packets for things like video communications, but now there is a much more intelligent system in place. An artificial packet agent for security and efficiency now maintains each stream. These agents efficiently handle and service the needs of the people, with or without inspection of the actual data. Services now connect at speeds that are fast enough that the end users are considered the biggest bottlenecks.
Learning is no longer limited by physical space; information is available wherever a person may travel. Quality, real-time translations for any known language are available as audio downloads, as are adaptive technologies for users with special needs via audio harmonizers and neurotransmitters. This allows information to be conveyed easily and helps bypass usability barriers. Available brick-and-mortar space is still used by libraries for archival and collaborative needs, and “despite a shift to more electronic usage of library resources, physical space is still an important factor in perceptions of resources” (Gerke and Maness 2010, 27).
In 2011, Hewlett-Packard briefly attempted to scuttle many of its hardware devices, perhaps prematurely, to make way for a digital future. The maker announced that they were also releasing memristors, a technology with advanced properties for handling data signals (Hewlett-Packard Development Company 2011). Memristors made it so that storage speeds and memory would accelerate radically. This upgrade allowed services that had web-only applications to be transferred to very small devices and be able to access large data sets. The first obvious application of this technology, through software, was the development of an application called LHsee. LHsee was created for the Android operating system by a group at Oxford University (Wilton 2011). LHsee allowed anyone in the world to connect to the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), the particle accelerator through which scientists are studying the universe.
In the early part of the twenty-first century, machines were being developed to compete with humans on game shows like Jeopardy! and be able to process real questions in context (Baker 2011, 1). It should be noted that AI during this era was a concern to some. There were people who envisioned a postapocalyptic world run by machines. Even with reservations, some must have thought that the world could not continue to grow profitably without the adoption of technological interfaces. AI systems became popularized through products like Apple’s Siri. Research via AI, “smart” engines that could learn, became deep and insightful. Software development started to change significantly around 2011 with the development of the new programming language named Dart, a brainchild of Google. It was used behind the scenes in future developments. All the while computer labs around campuses across the United States evolved even more.
During this era, libraries of all stripes reached the conclusion that large print collections were neither sustainable nor necessary. As one scholar of the era noted, “Signals pointed to the demise of the print collection for some time” (Garrison 2011, 14). The question arose about how best to handle archival materials for future scholars. Resources available on the Internet became even more attractive as funding for libraries became more and more limited. Cooperative archiving strategies and enabling legislation with regard to copyright clearance paved the wave for large-scale digitization efforts. During the first decades of the twenty-first century, libraries reinvented themselves. Some facilities became study locations for peer mentoring and resource training; some just merged into the larger libraries around them (Thibodeau 2010). Physical collections still existed for unique and rare materials, such as first editions or historically significant works.
Although initially plagued with trepidation, citizens, librarians, and library administrators embraced a new path for libraries and library services as one full of optimistic changes and possibilities. The “library” is now free of many of the constraints evident from the previous era, such as the prohibitive digital rights management regulations and network congestion. Legislation, both domestically and internationally, determined that much of the information had to become available to all.
Society realized again that the freedom of the people was dependent on the freedom of speech. Library services, including reference services, were liberated, able to operate making full use of the intellectual material available on the World Wide Web.
Auletta, Ken. 2009. Googled: The End of the World as We Know It. New York: Penguin.
Baker, Stephen. 2011. Final Jeopardy. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Garrison, Julie. 2011. “What Do We Do Now? A Case for Abandoning Yesterday and Making the Future.” References and User Services Quarterly 51 (1): 12–14.
Gerke, Jennifer, and Jack M. Maness. 2010. “The Physical and the Virtual: The Relationship between Library as Place and Electronic Collections.” College and Research Libraries 71 (1): 20–31.
Hewlett-Packard Development Company. 2011. “Revealed: The Material Properties of Memristors.” Posted May 16. www.hpl.hp.com/news/2011/apr-jun/memristors.html.
Lee, Timothy B. 2012. “Internet Wins: SOPA and PIPA Both Shelved.” Ars Technica, January 20. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/internet-wins-sopa-and-pipa-both-shelved.ars.
Thibodeau, Patricia L. 2010. “When the Library Is Located in Prime Real Estate: A Case Study on the Loss of Space from the Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives.” Journal of the Medical Library Association 98 (1): 25–28.
Vilardell, Nick. 2008. “Newest Technology: 360Brandvision™ Offers 3D Video Holograms in 360 Degrees.” PRWeb.com, November 10. www.prweb.com/releases/hologram/technology/prweb1587394.htm.
Wilton, Pete. 2011. “App Puts LHC on Your Mobile.” Oxford Science Blog, October 7. www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/111007.html.