By Christopher Harris -- School Library Journal, 10/1/2008
Libraries are often considered part of the service industry, but perhaps it’s time for that misconception to go the way of “Shhh!” Rising to the challenge presented by BlackPlanet founder Omar Wasow in his closing remarks at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in 2007, school librarians have worked to position the media center as an experience rather than a service.
Wasow’s call to action stemmed from a 1999 book, The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. In defining five stages of an economy, the book provides a classic example in the coffee industry, which evolved from the commoditization of sacks of beans to the modern java bar, which offers an experience around the consumption of coffee. Libraries, it can be argued, have followed a similar path from early storehouses of information and the delivery of related services to the emergence of an information experience powered by social technologies and now the redefining of libraries as a destination. More.
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