What IS the library?

Jason Griffey is the Head of Library Information Technology at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and the creator of LibraryBox. At the time of this post, Griffey is near the end of an insanely successful Kickstarter campaign to fund development of LibraryBox. Reading about LibraryBox got me to thinking about just what exactly is the library. Is it a building that houses a collection of materials to be freely shared and consumed? Is it LibraryBox? Is it simply a box full of used books stationed somewhere in your community? I think the answer to all of these question is yes. And I think LibraryBox represents the fundamental spirit and charge of libraries: providing free and equal access to information.

Griffey shares the instance of an English teacher in China using LibraryBox to provide class materials to his poorer students who could not afford to bypass China's Great Firewall as easily as could their wealthier peers. I found this to be a great example of applying the principles of library science to improve someone's life (or in this case, the lives of all the students). What if we were to load one of these devices with the over 42,000 free ebooks from Project Gutenberg or content from our Oklahoma Collection and placed it in the airport or in the forthcoming Downtown Public Park? We could expand the library's reach into the community, providing equitable access to this content for all who are interested. 

So, what do you think the library is?