Walsh: Turning a page at the Sonoma County library

The Sonoma Valley Library's installation of new check-out kiosks may not be as revolutionary as the creation of the Dewey Decimal System or the 45-degree-angle book-return chute.

But it is a needed sign to those of us who still use libraries that the eighth-cent Measure Y sales tax was worth our 2016 vote.

Measure Y passed with 72% approval and is expected to bring the Sonoma County Library system about $12 million a year in revenue for 10 years. That can buy a lot of James Patterson paperbacks. Since then, library officials say they've added dozens of staff, increased the materials budget by two-thirds and added an average of 35% more open hours each week at its 12 branches.

The kiosks are the latest component of a technology push the library system is launching as part of its Education and Innovation initiative. In March, for instance, the county's “roving” 3D printer made its rounds to the Sonoma library, where locals with a spare three hours on their hands could print their own three-dimensional designs on the Lulzbot TAZ 6, a $3,000 machine purchased and donated by an anonymous library supporter and Friends of the Santa Rosa Library.

Being able to print miniature models of your favorite zoo animal is great, but the current technology is mostly useful to hobbyists and product designers - not yet the average book geek. And state of the art book check-out stations are a definite must-have for the library, but, again, scanning those bar codes with a bit more efficiency isn't exactly a game-changer for patrons.

But with an overall vision for deploying the advances in technology to library systems, Sonoma County is on the right track. In fact, combining digital innovations with any library's primary directive - to disseminate information and educate its citizenry - will be key to the survival of libraries if they want to avoid a similar fate as mainstream book sellers, mega-retail record shops and video stores.

The libraries of the future will have to offer what many of the best museums and galleries are transitioning toward in order to keep the turnstiles rolling - an interactive experience. Libraries are already trending in that direction. Today it's common to see adjoining maker spaces being used as after-school alternatives for kids seeking more than a comfy chair and the latest from Jeff Kinney. Coding programs and virtual reality headgear are drawing more kids to libraries these days than even Percy Jackson. And just because the kids of today will eventually become tomorrow's adults doesn't mean their expectations of what a library system has to offer is going to suddenly revert to their parents' simple satisfaction over a well-stocked “new nonfiction” shelf.

It's also worth noting that, according to a 2017 Pew Research study, millennials are 8% more likely to visit a public library than their Gen-X counterparts and 10% more likely than baby boomers.

Which is why increasing the technological innovations for libraries is vital to keeping a healthy audience share.

There will be multiple players in this arena, but among them will have to be Big Data - the algorithms being used by tech companies to pitch us ads, headlines and based-on-your-interest Netflix movies could streamline the library experience in a highly effective way. To direct patrons to books and materials based on their interests would be one giant leap for bookwormkind - at least compared to the middling success in seeking guidance from helpful but sometimes misdirecting librarians.

Also currently being experimented with are digital interfaces with printed books - combining the best functions of e-books onto printed pages - and augmented reality, which would meld the written word with digitally created visuals; think the “moving” books read by the characters in “Harry Potter.” Think how learning could be enhanced if a textbook on the American Civil War followed each chapter with a relevant segment from the Ken Burns documentary.

Libraries, books and their capabilities to inform and uplift society are advancing at a steady pace, but that pace will accelerate even further in the coming years.

The first publicly funded library in America was the Boston Public Library, founded in 1852; it boasted 16,000 books upon opening. Today there is thought to be nearly 117,000 libraries throughout the U.S.

“A library implies an act of faith,” wrote Victor Hugo. But it's a faith in worship of creativity, discovery and a humanity that thirsts for knowledge.

Bring on your new state of the art kiosks, Sonoma County Library. The Church of the True Crime Shelf is ringing in the flock.

Jason Walsh is editor of the Sonoma Index-Tribune. Email him at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@pressdemocrat.com