Center for Library and Information Innovation

The Death of the Library: Read It and Weep

I walked into my local public library in London the other day and got a rude shock. All of my favorite librarians were gone. They'd been replaced by machines. Where the circulation desk once stood -- manned by a friendly soul with whom I'd chat about politics or the weather or the latest London Review of Books -- I now swiped my library card and pushed a button that said "borrow" or "return." They'd also done some remodeling. This particular branch sits in an elegant 1930s building located in the garden of the house where the poet John Keats wrote his "Ode to a Nightingale." The main room -- ...

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