Library as Place

I had a conversation today with a colleague who is exploring some ideas for a scholarly article on library Web sites. We both agree that one of the purposes of a library's Web site is to connect users to the information they want in as seamless a manner as possible--something library Web sites don't always do very well. My colleague said that though some people don't want to hear it, the [academic] library Web site is more important now than the [academic] library building. I smiled and said, "Well, as important."

A few hours later, I read the Feel-good Librarian's guest post at Tame the Web, in which she relates an experience where a library user got what he needed by coming into the library building and talking to a person. Some may argue that the library user at the Feel-good Librarian's library didn't have a need that could only be met by a library, but it was met nonetheless. There are many reasons why I think the library Web site will never be more important than the library building, and the Feel-good Librarian succinctly identified one of those reasons: "Some days, it's just not about the machine."