Susan Kent
What happens to libraries as Internet connections become ubiquitous? Might physical libraries soon cater only to die-hards who insist on stalking through stacks and reading the printed page? Or will the wealth of clickable knowledge increase the utility of libraries as arbiters skilled in untangling the info-babel of the online age?
City Librarian Susan G. Kent is one of the many librarians who have fully embraced technology and see it as a positive force in the evolution of their institutions. Fully three-quarters of the nation’s libraries have Internet access, and many have added such crowd pleasers as museum-style exhibits, interactive programs for children and even coffee bars and restaurants. The stacks are changing, too: Books are displayed full-face, so readers don’t have to crane their necks to read the spines.
A visit to the Los Angeles Public Library’s downtown flagship reveals many of these changes and more. Syncopated music blasts from the new Teen’scape section, which boasts a magazine rack full of hip publications and computer tables featuring flat-screen monitors. The library’s exhibition space is currently hosting a collection of ancient Chinese books, scrolls, maps and other treasures never before seen outside China. The children’s literature department includes a small theater designed for everything from puppet shows to multimedia presentations.
With some 3.7 million potential cardholders, the L.A. Public Library serves the largest population in the nation. It has been blessed by voters, who approved major bond issues in 1989 and again two years ago.
Under the direction of Kent, the system now supports 67 branches and seems poised to take on the challenges of the interconnected information era. Kent is, by all accounts, a tireless fund-raiser and dynamic administrator who seems to be a perfect blend of old-school and new-age librarian. Before arriving in L.A. in 1995, she worked at public libraries in New York City, Tuscon, Ariz., and Minneapolis.
A New York native, Kent has a bachelor’s degree from State University of New York at Binghamton and a master’s from Columbia University. Kent’s husband, Raleigh, is a writer. She is the mother of three grown children.
In a conversation in her fourth-floor office in the Central Library, she talked about the challenges of technology, the business of running a library in a multilingual city like Los Angeles and the difficulty of recruiting new talent in an overheated information economy.
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Question: How has the Internet changed the role of the public library?
Answer: The Internet is just one piece of it. . . . It doesn’t matter where you are: We can get information, electronically, to the smallest town and the largest city. That makes the library a true information agency, a cultural agency and an education agency. We use the Internet as a technology pipeline to deliver a lot of information. . . . We’re digitizing millions of photographic records so that people everywhere . . . can find [photos] on our Web site. We’re using it for educational purposes. We’re using it as a radio, transmitting information, education and culture. . . . I like to say [the Internet] is a library without walls within the walls of our library. . . . We have geographical boundaries. We serve the city of Los Angeles. But the boundaries are transparent due to technology.
Q: How does this transform the physical nature of the library building?
A: On the outside, we look like the library that everybody remembers. But we are wired, and who knows what will happen as wireless technology begins to become more prevalent. . . . We’re seeing an influx of young people coming to our branches to use the technology to find books, CDs, videos or something else that they would like to check out. Of course, we still have books. . . . But the push toward electronic books is something we need to pay attention to. We are working with some vendors who are doing e-books over the Web and making some available to our users.
Q: You’d think that being able to disseminate this information might mitigate the need to build more library buildings. Yet, technology is very expensive.
A: We live in a digital divide, between folks who can afford to use technology, buy computers and have modems and Internet hookups and those who cannot. One of the goals of the library is to help bridge the digital divide. We’re very fortunate to have the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, which is our fund-raising arm. The majority of funding for our technology came from private donors through the Library Foundation. Technology is expensive [but] not being current would leave . . . the people who use us at a tremendous disadvantage. So we need to make investments in technology-based collections.
Q: How has the rapid emergence of technology changed the way that librarians have to be trained?
A: We have to constantly provide training and updating for our staff. It takes a lot of time for them to become familiar and comfortable with the technology. . . . But our staff is very accepting of the changes. . . . It used to be OK to say, “I can get a book for you in a couple of weeks.” Folks want instant gratification now. They know it’s out there somewhere, just a click away.
Q: A lot of universities that train librarians in information science are being raided by for-profit companies looking for young people with skills as information managers or information architects. Has that made it tougher for you to find skilled librarians?
A: That is one of the most serious issues we face. We’ve come to a time when a whole generation of librarians will soon be eligible to retire. Plus, there was a cutback in the number of graduates from library schools during the recession. So it is a good time for people who are getting graduate degrees in library and information sciences. They’re coming out [and getting] five to 10 job offers. I talked to a young woman who recently graduated and was offered a job in an e-business in Southern California for $75,000 a year. Our starting salary, which is good for public libraries, is $37,000 a year, and that’s with a master’s degree. . . . Can we compete with Yahoo in terms of jobs and stock options? No. But we have a lot of other rewards that we can provide.
Q: Libraries are taking some cues from retail bookstores. For instance, they are copying bookstores in the way they display books, and they’re making sure that new books are available on the day of their publication. Is that a good thing?
A: Libraries are taking some cues from retail bookstores, and retail bookstores are taking some cues from libraries. How many retail bookstores have story time for children? They stole that from us. But, yes, we need to do a better job of marketing and merchandising what we have. . . . We know there’s lots of competition out there, and it’s not just bookstores. It’s what’s happening on television, and what music people download. Having attractive displays of new books in libraries so that people can see them in the same way they see them in bookstores is a very good thing. We need to let people know . . . not only what’s new but what’s classic, so that they might consider reading “Tender Is the Night” and “Moby Dick” because we displayed them in a way that made them appealing. . . . We also need to have collections that are in-depth and that have more of a lasting value. The Web is very ephemeral. What you searched yesterday may not still be there when you search tomorrow. Plus, there is no real way to understand how accurate the information is on the Web. When libraries put together a collection, they try to find the best, and I believe that function will be increasingly important in the future.
Q: The library exists in a highly multilingual environment. What responsibility do you have to collect materials in languages other than English, and what challenges does that pose?
A: We have a great responsibility to build collections in languages other than English. We have a large Spanish-language collection at the Central Library. We have 27 or 28 significant language collections, as well as smaller collections in over 100 languages and dialects. This is a transient city, and as the communities change, we have to make sure we move the books around so that we’re being responsive to the people who live in a community. There are many challenges in this: acquiring the books, get[ting] the best ones, get[ting] them quickly and having a staff who can speak these languages. As the city continues to change, we’ll be putting more emphasis on other languages as we see new immigrants.
Q: What are some other technologies that will be important for libraries in the future?
A: [Besides] digitiz[ing] many of our photo collections and making them available on the Web . . . we’re considering a “call center”-type program to enable us to provide more direct assistance when searching our Web site. Don’t ask me how to do this technology, but say you’re stuck on a spot and you need some help, so you click, and there’s a person who can help you. We’re looking at e-books. Stephen King’s latest book was only available in electronic format. Could we get it? No. Is that bad? Yes. So we need to follow that trend closely.
Q: The library has been able to garner strong public support, particularly for bond issues. Why is that? Who should we credit?
A: I give it to the staff of the Los Angeles Public Library, because they’ve done a really good job. After the 1989 bonds were approved, we completed 27 branch projects, and we built them on time and on budget. When we went back to the voters in 1998, that was the basis of our campaign. . . . We’re working on 36 more. . . . We were meticulous in costing out what it would take to build this new library system. . . . We’ve also had terrific support from elected officials, including the mayor and the entire City Council.
Another key is that our staff has done a wonderful job of building community support. It happens every time a parent comes in with a young child who needs assistance with reading material. Or every time a senior citizen needs some consumer information, or someone is looking for job and needs someone to tell them how to write a resume.
About three years ago, we reopened the Van Nuys Library. A little boy . . . about 8 or 9 years old came in. He walked around, then he came over to me and said, “This is the best place in the world.” We have to make the library the best place in the world. And that takes a lot of people. Are we the best place in the whole world? Sometimes we are. Do we have a long way to go? Yes. But we want people to be proud of us. Proud that they have a Los Angeles Public Library. We want them to feel good about using us.
Q: Should Los Angeles split up into many cities, what would be the effect on the library system?
A: The library is more than the sum of its parts. Our resources are read and are good because they have been developed by branch librarians who built the collections, whether in Watts, Vernon or Granada Hills. And somebody in Granada Hills may need those resources the same way a person in Wilmington might need Granada Hills’ resources--and they are all available to everyone. So if the library system were broken up, it would be a very sticky issue. *