It’s an issue that keeps coming up peripherally but never seems to be addressed head on. There was something at Christmas I think but I got distracted by other worries then and now it’s come up again in The Decimal Divide by Joshua and even in Christopher’s “addition of beauty products to a porcine companion” concern about the Sopac.

The issue is this. Libraries are designed for finding information. The way they say men shop: hunt, grab, go. Browsing is pretty much impossible. Bookstores are designed for browsing (to maximize profits). Looking for something specific, not as easy unless you’re really familiar with that store.

So the problem facing libraries is that they require the finding information setup for themselves and researchers and they need the comfortable browsability (it’s a word now!) for the casual users looking for entertainment.

Bringing us back to the question. Can we have it both ways? And its companion. How?