We have all grown up with the modern library. In fact, our experience with the modern library is so thoroughgoing that it is difficult to conceive of the library being anything but the modern library. However, changes appear to be taking place at the present time with respect to the modern library which are very much like those which brought about the modern library in the first place. These changes may be illustrated in the same way we illustrated the shift that took place in the last century, only in this case with a different set of names (see Figure 2).
Here, we observe that new "roots" have been growing which appear to give every promise of changing what is now considered the modern library in the same way that earlier libraries were forever changed by the innovations of the 1870s. In this case, new roots include the rise of new information technologies--computers, computer software, modern telecommunications, the "Net," etc.--and also the rise of a growing number of sister information fields with such names as Data Processing, Management Information Systems, Information Resources Systems, Computer Science, Information Science, Artificial Intelligence, Multimedia, Informatics, and the like.
The most obvious result of the changing environment is that the modern library has been overtaken by enormous expansion of the information services fields and occupations. The expansion has been so spectacular, in fact, and so fast, especially since World War II, that the portion of the total information services "pie" occupied by the modern library is now much smaller than previously. Further, the modern library's portion of the information services pie appears to be in for even more shrinkage as the years go by.[6]
This shrinkage--or as some might say, this loss of market share--is the reason for some to question almost immediately the viability of the modern library. The implication behind this conclusion is, of course, that without the modern library there is no library. But, this conclusion is nonsensical. It would be the same as if, from the point of view of the early 1870s, one were to conclude that without the closed, limited-access, privately-funded library of the times, there could be no library. And we all know that did not occur. Instead, what occurred was the transformation of the idea of the library common to an earlier period into the modern library.
I suggest that what is occurring now is a similar shift. The modern library is changing, changing so dynamically, in fact, that we are witnessing a new approach to the library emerging, a new library era. If this is true, however, into what is it changing? And will the change be so thoroughgoing as to end the modern library in the same way that the modern library ended the earlier library which preceded it?
It would be difficult at best to describe something that has not fully taken place. At the same time it is instructive to attempt to identify those essential elements of the modern library which are being challenged by the new "roots" which are now appearing and which hold some promise to produce a new library era. In my view, there are at least three basic aspects of the modern library that our contemporary situation is challenging. These are: 1) How we view the idea of the library as a social institution; 2) How we view the target populations that the library is to serve; and 3) How we view the idea of library funding.