Today JISC has launched a video documentary about the future of libraries. It’s really about academic libraries in universities rather than the libraries on our high streets but many of the issues are the relevant to all libraries.
This is a critically important issue. Although they are easy to laugh off, libraries play a fundamental role in our democratic foundations, providing fair and open access to information so we can all make informed choices and build our knowledge. They are a social hub for the community and build social capital.
Librarians play a key role in helping us to access the right sort of information and making these centres welcoming places. More and more people are turning to the internet, typically via Google, and finding their answers there but information literacy can be poor particularly among the younger generations.
Having interviewed many, many librarians about their future I worry. They are presented with an enormous opportunity to help people discriminate and identify great information but they have huge challenges. They see their users less as many access the library remotely but now more than ever they have to sell their expertise. They have to love new technology but they tend to be rather conservative and hanker for the way things were. The job is seen as dull and unexciting – and it isn’t!.
In universities I see the brightest future in converting the library space into a social space. They have to build great online spaces so the information can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. They need to match that with great physical spaces where people can come together to talk, exchange, work, explore.
And these two spaces need to be bridged with social media – a space where people can be drawn into the libraries and where the conversations can continue.
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