‘New Book’ an opportunity for library

By James A. Novak and Mitchel A. Bloomquist

Today, when information is effortlessly at our fingertips, the role of the traditional library should be re-examined. It can no longer serve simply as a warehouse for books, as the form of the book has changed.

New technologies like Amazon's Kindle and the rumored Apple Tablet, coupled with the anticipated eruption of Google Books and its effort to digitize every book ever printed, are revolutionizing the way books are bought, sold, stored, searched and read. Just as the form for the distribution of music has changed over time (vinyl record, eight-track, cassette, compact disc, digital mp3) the form of the book is evolving.

The New Book is flexible and infinitely easier to store. It can integrate multimedia, be adapted after publishing, searched by billions of people, distributed without the associated costs of traditional books, and stored without the cost of space and risk of damage.

The book, and more importantly, the storage of the book, is associated with perhaps the most important public institution in our community.

While our community seems to have embraced some principles of green building throughout our rebuilding process, we have thus far fallen short of grasping the holistic concept of sustainability, which goes beyond energy efficiency to include economic and social issues.

Is the idea of creating a place to store and display an enormous number of books when that same information will soon be available at our fingertips aligned with the core principles of sustainability?

This development is an unbelievable opportunity for libraries to reallocate previously dedicated resources of space, staff, and money to a new energized model of the library.

Cedar Rapids has a unique opportunity to be one of the first communities to fully explore the potential of the New Book. Our library should be a new, dynamic institution with a renewed set of responsibilities to its community. The mission of the facility should be shifted away from the warehousing process to the vital process of management and presentation of knowledge.

The library should be a choreographed dance of the audible, visual, legible and tangible information systems. The “place” is now an essential provider of stimulation and inspiration, not just access. The focus of the library should no longer be to create a place for the mere storage of information; it should be to create a place for people to interact with information.

The library will thus afford the visitor an entirely new experience, the opportunity to discover and engage information in a way that has never before been possible.

This human element is of paramount importance. As the material becomes more and more accessible and interaction continues to be online, what role could the library play in bringing people together to learn and discuss? How could the library contribute to the cultivation of community?

The library should create an atmosphere conducive to face to face and group learning and interaction. Additionally, the library must help organize and comment on a source's authenticity, relevance and legitimacy.

It will be a missed opportunity if our community dedicates tremendous amounts of resources to the rebuilding of our library without seriously questioning its mission and relevancy. As a community at a tipping point we must demand progress, innovation, and creativity.

We have an opportunity to be pioneers, we are in a position to re-evaluate and reinvent our most important public institution. We cannot afford to go down the nostalgic path of re-creating what we lost. We need to champion the opportunity this flood has created to put Cedar Rapids on the cutting edge of innovation.

James A. Novak and Mitchel A. Bloomquist are architects at Novak Design Group, founded in 1986 and located in Cedar Rapids. As a counterpart to the architectural practice, Novak and Bloomquist say they make it a priority to think critically and creatively about key issues facing the Cedar Rapids Area.