We have really become a 24-hour culture. With the growth of the Internet has come an expansion of the time window that people use to communicate or to get information. No longer do people work 8:00 - 5:00 and then go home and forget about work. People often take their work home or even work from home, and that more than 40 hours a week. Since people are doing work at all hours, or looking for information at all hours, those of us who SUPPORT them (either with technology or information) must provide service at all hours.

This is a radical notion for many readers, I’m sure, but it’s true. Our high-school- and college-age students are definitely online at all hours, often looking for information at 2am, when all but the 24/7 libraries are closed. Someone has to fill that need. If it’s not libraries, then we’re ceding the position of Primary Information Source over to Google and other online sites. For the library as we know it to exist dynamically in the future, we have to offer 24/7 service.

Now, that DOESN’T mean that we have to be STAFFED 24/7. People using Google at 3am are not interacting with people. They’re interacting with a computer. The same can be done by our libraries. In fact, most libraries are doing at least an element of this. That’s by putting their OPAC online. By having the catalog online, the library can interact with its patrons at any time of day and from any place. To the end user, the library resource that they’re using REPRESENTS the library! In fact, for all the people that visit us online before (or instead of) walking through our doors, our online presence IS the library. It affects what people think about us and provides the first level of service.

For a library to continue being viable into the future, we have to have quality websites and oodles of information. The more resources we make available online and in a user-friendly manner, the more value we have in the eyes of our patrons. Especially those that hardly ever walk through our doors for whatever reason. Collections of links to quality websites, blogs for reading clubs or reviews of new books, options for communicating with a librarian via Instant Messenger or email… these are just a few ways that we can rather painlessly improve our value in our patrons’ eyes and being offering them 24/7 information. It just takes some work and a willingness to try.