To me a crowd is just one piece of information that I add to other pieces of information. When someone asks which email provider they should use, they usually add that they've heard that a lot of people use Hotmail. And I tell them, yes, a lot of people use Hotmail, and that is why, from 2 to 3 in the afternoon, you can't get to your mail because ten million people are doing the exact same thing. So I tell them they might want to consider a different email provider, or go with Hotmail, it's their choice; I'm just telling them what I know about crowds.
Crowds make you wait. Crowds make you late. Crowds block your exits. Crowds make Tickle-me Elmos impossible to find at Christmas-time.
But crowds also make you feel safer. Crowds make you feel like you belong. Crowds make you feel like you made the right choice.
So. Here's an interesting article called, The Wisdom of Crowds from James LaRue, a library director.
His focus seems to be on technology and things, since his original question to "high level librarians" was, "Which technological trend or idea, in your judgment, will have the biggest effect on libraries over the next 5-10 years?"
The top answers all had to do with things: open source library systems, open source software, and convergence of mobile devices.
I agree that these will be trends, but they won't help libraries, except with old issues. They won't change the way libraries serve their customers. They will just make things a little easier. Going with my crowd theory, they will just make us feel like we belong.
The technological idea that should affect libraries is advertising. At some point libraries were branding and marketing, but they never got into hardcore advertising. And rightly so. It's damn expensive. His question didn't specify "positive" effects, I think advertising will have the greatest negative effect on libraries because people do what they are told and we can't afford to tell the people about libraries.
But if we could afford it, this is what I suggest as a campaign:
And,Searching is not finding.
Though search engines are good at searching, libraries are good at finding. When you get tired of searching through 10 billion web pages, ask a librarian to help you find the answer.
The web is for searching. Libraries are for finding.
Do you want to stay a schmuck all your life? Go to the freaking library. Read a book, you moron.
I think every library should put a few bucks into a fund to create a national campaign to promote libraries. It would just be, Go to the library. Or Ask the library. Or something that won't exclude any library who puts some money in the pot. Keep it simple, but shove it down people's throats. Who even thought about toe fungus before some animated creep told us we needed some drug to cure it? Who knew so many old people wanted to have sex before the drug companies showed us all the horny old farts in the boner-fuel commercials?
You can't keep chasing technology. Figure out what libraries do best and keep doing it. And strive to do it better. And then tell everyone that we do it.
