Blog | The Noun Project, Cultural Heritage Symbols. Making Libraries More Shareable. Libraries are really good at lending. It’s who they are, it’s what they do. A growing number of materials, including ebooks, fishing poles, cake pans, art and tools, can all be borrowed from libraries. But as libraries transform themselves into 21st century institutions, some innovators are looking beyond libraries solely as lenders and seeing ways that they could be hubs for the sharing economy. “Libraries are set up to be this top-down institution, but they don’t have to be,” says Meg Backus, adult programming librarian at the Northern Onondaga Public Library in upstate New York.
“If we could open it up, let the walls down a little bit, and allow for the two-way traffic; if we could let you lend books through the library, that just makes a ton of sense.” Backus’s vision is that not only books, but a variety of materials including tools, a spare room, cars, furniture, music and art could be shared on a peer-to-peer basis through libraries, which could build in trust or credibility.
E-Books, Libraries and Democracy. Public phone booths in New York repurposed into libraries. Www.ala.org/offices/sites/ala.org.offices/files/content/oitp/publications/policybriefs/confronting_the_futu.pdf. NextSpace [OCLC - Membership]