The future for public libraries is not collection but curation of information sources – not in the simplistic manner of a Scoop.it account, but in a robust and personalised way. When our members ask for recommendations or assistance we should be able and willing to direct them to a range of publications from physical books and traditional journals to whole blogs, individual posts and even perhaps Twitter accounts and the like. Just because ‘its all online’ doesn’t mean people won’t need help to find it or know about it. The need to organise information in a meaningful way doesn’t diminish in a post-paper environment, and neither does the desire to discover new ideas. Curation and assisted discovery will take new forms as we bring together speakers, hands-on learning, online information and interactive storytelling. Librarians who ignore these opportunities are unlikely to have a future. Those who embrace them now should expect an exciting one.
The first thing Lascarides says to me is, “Digital is becoming the horseless of our age.” He’s referring to the late nineteenth century time that produced publications like, “Horseless Age,” the Wired of the early automobile era. His point is that the word “digital” is becoming unnecessary because “digital is woven into everything.” You add the adjective when you need to differentiate it from the world’s general expectations. After automobiles dominated the landscape, horselessness was assumed. Indeed, we all live in the horseless age, but very few of us feel the need to draw attention to that fact.
I dwell on this point not only because I like saying horseless age, but also because it’s a key element of how the NYPL encourages its staff to think. As May puts it, “Our strategy starts and ends with users.” They simply provide what the people want, and increasingly, that means combining brick-and-mortar offerings with digital collections and front-ends.
Resistance is futile: how libraries must serve society by embracing cloud culture, the end of the information age, and inevitable technological and social trends
Kent Fitch (National Library of Australia, Trove) at the NLA Innovative Ideas Forum 2010. An mp3 recording of this talk can also be heard.
The next “next generation library catalog” is not about find, instead it is about use.
From Container to Context by Kent Fitch - How cataloguers can drive a fundamental and necessary change in resource description, with inspiration from Eric Lease Morgan, Cory Doctorow and David Weinberger.
The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.
We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.
When in Seoul, one of our library staff members took the opportunity to visit the National Digital Library of Korea. The facilities are impressive!
Dibrary is the world’s first hybrid library combining digital and analogue ideas. Dibrary consists of “Dibrary Portal,” a virtual space, and a physical service space called “Dibrary Information Commons”. - About Dibrary
You can also view these photos on Flickr.
Libraries aren’t what they used to be. They were quiet, hushed places, sometimes a refuge from the rain or the heat of summer. They had that distinct smell associated with old books, as well as that crisp new book smell.
Now the local state or municipal public library has a very different feel. It’s a centre of activities, even events: there can be classes on things like how to sell on eBay. So what is happening to our libraries? Is it a good thing?
Library usage is increasing across Australia. In a national study over five years, 177 million items were lent to the almost 10 million members of Australia’s public libraries. And internet use at libraries is also on the rise. So what does this say about the future library, what will it look like? Will we need those long aisles of books and queues at the counter?
With Kathryn Greenhill, Special librarian, Cottesloe-Peppermint Grove-Mosman Park Library, and Dr Ian McShane, Researcher, Swinburne Institute of Technology.
