The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships: Historical Antecedents, Contemporary Manifestations, and Future Directions

Citation

Layzell Ward, P. (2006), "The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships: Historical Antecedents, Contemporary Manifestations, and Future Directions", Library Review, Vol. 55 No. 7, pp. 453-455. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610682173

This is one of the most stimulating titles to come to hand in recent years. The Canadian authors examine the nature of museum and library partnerships at the present time and discuss how it might develop in the future. They have drawn on the concept of the joint‐use library and produced a controversial volume. For anyone in the library or museum sectors contemplating the purpose and function of their institution, this is required reading. The authors delve into history in some detail and consider the philosophical foundations of libraries and museums. They provide evidence from an extensive survey and analysis of projects sponsored by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services between 1998 and 2003, before developing a model for the future.

The text is presented in six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to marketing museums and libraries discussing change and the challenge of maintaining a physical presence in their communities in the digital age against competition from entertainment venues and edutainment.

Chapter 2 focuses on museum, libraries and their post‐object roles. The thorny issue of bringing in people from the corporate sector to create popular exhibitions and increase attendance resulting in tension with curators produces a fascinating consideration of popular culture today.Chapter 3 turns to libraries and edutainment making good use of examples from a number of countries. They describe services that have become a social venue perhaps modelled on Barnes and Noble and Borders bookshops – with comfortable armchairs, cybercafés, piped music and vending machines which defer to corporate sponsorship. They regret a weakening of the education role of the public library.

Chapter 4 examines library‐museum partnerships as learning communities reporting the findings of their survey in some detail. The authors consider that “…an increasing number of IMLS‐sponsored projects both intellectually and concretely bypass libraries completely… libraries and their rich, text‐based conceptualising resources are – metaphysically at least – deemed superfluous in these projects…” (p. 124). The museum‐library institution is portrayed as being “a marketing based relationship driven by outcome measures in such a manner as to generate the highest possible attendance figures or, in the case of digital partnerships, the highest possible numbers of culture visits” (p. 143). A fascinating analogy is introduced at this point of a library adopting an “exhibition function” by assuming the role and responsibility of offering a “cabinet of curiosities” commonly found in the 16th century. Examples are given of the relationship between the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford and Thomas Jefferson's collections before describing some examples of today such as the Sahara West Library and Fine Arts Museum in Las Vegas.

Chapter 5 discusses lessons from the past and presents models for the future suggesting that the kitsch “curiosities” of the past should today engender a sense of wonder. The authors see the library mounting exhibitions that create a strong relationship with the community served and drawing on the overflow stock of local museums.

The final chapter describes the symbolic place of the library‐museum hybrid in the digital age regretting that, in the US, something has been lost “… authentic experience has been replaced by an ersatz pastiche of ‘daily life’ that leaves out the hard reality of the political and national implications of those ‘daily life’ choices” (p. 205). There is a discussion of Habermas's definition of a public sphere noting that public libraries only serve a fraction of the public, but the authors feel that there is a real possibility of creating a critical public sphere. However, public libraries “… run the risk of hollowing out their mission of education, knowledge acquisition, and critical enquiry” (p. 216). A single building is proposed for a library‐museum hybrid which would create interaction between the objects and books. The goal would be to “… enhance the learning experiences and critical faculties of all community members in meaningful ways, not merely in ways that are dependant upon consumerism‐based entertainment events, displays, and programs…” (p. 217).

There is a mass of details in the volume that will provoke readers. The arguments presented are, on the one hand, persuasive – but the pressure from funding bodies to both increase use in quantitative, rather than qualitative, terms and obtain sponsorship creates challenges for the directors of museums and libraries. This book is highly recommended reading for practitioners and a great source of information for students.