As part of the reading and thinking I’ve been doing that lead up to my post last weekend, I’ve also been thinking about the question, if not books, then what?

Aaron Schmidt addresses this idea in his recent post, “libraries might not provide content in the future & it’s okay“. He talks about how much content is online now, and some of the ways that libraries are being cut out of the process of providing it.

I commented that it made me think of OCLC’s recent report, From Awareness to Funding: A study of library support in America:

… which talks about libraries being “transformational”, but not because of the old rhetoric of books opening up new worlds and literacy creating opportunities. Rather, libraries are transformational because they are safe and ordered public spaces. That’s my first reading anyway.

What I really like about Aaron’s post is that he doesn’t approach the problem from the perspective of “libraries are changing, now what?” - because I feel strongly that if we’re constantly trying to keep up with someone else’s game, we’re always going to lose. Beating the bad guy at their own twisted game makes for great cinema, but I think we are more sane, and secure, if we try to understand our role and mission on our own terms. Really, all Jason Bourne wants is to regain his sense of self.

Another thing that had me thinking along these lines was Muhammed Yunus’ talk at ALA Midwinter just this last January. Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, which gives micro-loans, a few dollars here and there so that regular people in Bangladesh can do things like attending school or start a business instead of begging.

Yunus argued that poverty was created systematically, that it could be undone systematically as well, and that people should not be held responsible for the past. Economically, if you are born with no money, it shouldn’t mean that you have less opportunity to make any.

But banks and other institutions perpetuate this cycle and systematically create poverty. What is a bank’s role in undoing it?

I do the opposite of what the big banks do, and it works…. No collateral, no lawyers.

Yunus goes on to tell stories about people who start out as beggars, then borrow from Grameen so they can sell something door to door instead of begging. Later on, they borrow money to send their daughter to school, and she eventually becomes a doctor. I’m about to tear up at this point, and then he says something like, “History mutilated her … her mother could have been a doctor too”, and I do.

In Bangladesh, Yunus says, over 99% of borrowers at banks other than his are men. At Grameen back, 97% are women. Talk about your transformation.

The main ALA angle was “libraries give micro-loans, too”, in the form of books. This made me groan, because what really struck me was that Yunus was talking about the transformative power of an inclusive institution. Libraries figured this part out long ago.

There are still problems with libraries not being content providers - intellectual freedom is one, the “digital divide” is another, but I think Aaron is right, it is going to be okay, with the caveat that we are going to work harder than ever to make it happen.