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Library = Information
"Don't tell me libraries won't exist in the future," quipped a colleague when she learned I was writing a column for Searcher magazine about the future of librarians. Before I had even put my fingers to the keyboard to write my first sentence, I was already receiving strong, unsolicited feedback. And what did it mean? Was my colleague saying that I shouldn't say libraries won't exist in the future because she disagrees with the prediction? Or was she afraid to face an uncertain future devoid of printed books, where everything she's ever learned in 20 years of library work will have flown out the window?So begins David Grossman's column "What's next" in the Searcher ezine at Infotoday.
Like the old Christmas joke about no "L", the future of libraries may be information, and librarians must undergo a paradigm shift to become information specialists. [research] Listen to this article
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 8:23 AM
3 Comments:
I just saw these statistics in The Times (UK):
Britain’s libraries are lending 16 per cent fewer books than they did just five years ago. In one London borough the drop has been 41 per cent.
Richard Morrison goes on to say that libraries are on the decline because anyone who can afford it buys their books now so the poor who can't afford to buy are losing out as libraries reduce stock.
Personally, I probably buy 1 book for every 1 that I check out.
Writers who use libraries for research are losing out in some locations. Our branch keeps reducing hours and staff because the budget is directly tied to the circulation. Fewer books checked out, fewer services offered. It is screwy, IMHO!
When I was in college the first time, a close friend of mine was studying for her MLS - Master's in Library Science. At the time, Syracuse Universit was starting to call the field "Information Studies" instead of "Library Science," and we thought that was silly. Maybe it was, but the idea behind it, that eventually the function was going to be more about knowing how to access information than checking out bestsellers, turned out to be true after all.
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