What will the library of the future be like? We have been challenged at my library to write up a document and give a presentation on this and I believe that this is being done in more libraries than ever.
So here is an alphabet soup (with a few letters missing) on my thoughts on it.
Archival- Although many libraries do this now in the future it will be even more prevalent as electronic resources, materials and processes increase.
Bibliographic resources- although we do this now in the future it will become more complicated as more and more formats of materials become available.
Collaborative- In the future libraries will collaborate a lot more with outside enmities such as bookstores, schools, businesses and other organizations.
Digital- We are starting to see this trend now and it will only continue. Libraries of the future will house many materials that are born digital as well as continue to play an important role in digitizing paper records for digital retrieval.
Electronic- whether its eBooks, e-texts or other materials. The library of the future will become more and more electronic.
Flexible spaces-as physical materials decrease and the library becomes more of a community space, the library of the future will need to be flexible with their spaces.
Gaming- many libraries are offering games now but in the future games will be used even more to teach library literacy and other skills.
Handheld- libraries of the future will have to get used to and embrace handheld devices, programs and hand sized electronic gadgets of all types and sizes.
Iphones, ipads and i? In the future it will be assumed that libraries can support and offer materials and trainings on these devices.
Leadership- in the future libraries will be more expected to lead the way and to help others predict the future.
Metadata- although used now an understanding of how it works and how to use it will be even more important in the library of the future.
Notes, in the future even more note taking devices as well as notes and summaries of materials will be available and libraries will need to use them and support them.
On demand- even though this is starting to be used in some libraries, the library of the future will be able to access books and other materials on demand in even greater prevalence.
Portable- the library of the future will become increasingly portable as smart phones and other devices making taking the library with you more practical and possible.
Readers- whether it’s the Kindle, Nook, Ipad or some other device, in the future everyone or nearly everyone will have one and libraries will need to adapt their formats, collections and services to suit these.
Smaller- gone will be the days of large libraries full of millions of books. Instead with the increase in portability and electronic resources, archives will house the millions of copies of many print materials while your standard library will be smaller in terms of physical space.
Technology- even though it is crucial in libraries now, in the future librarians will need to be even more technology minded and aware.
United- the library of the future will need to be even more unified and different departments and types of libraries will need to work more together.
Virtual- the library of the future will see an increase in the popularity of virtual reference and other online services.
What other thoughts do you have about libraries of the future?
Local: As electronic resources are generally location agnostic, a key role of libraries will be to ground these in the interests of the community. This could also include collecting and cataloguing local, amateur or user produced content.
Libraries will change from a warehouse format to a clubhouse format – from a container for things to a meeting place for people. The theme will remain the same – The Life of the Mind.
It’s already happening. People who use the Internet in a library are doing something very different.
What are they looking at? What are they working on? Not much of what the library staff has chosen for them. The patrons are choosing things for themselves. Without the staff getting there first. And mostly without the staff’s knowledge of what they’re doing.
They’re in the library building. Yet they’re also out there in the world, on their own.
The library staff is losing much of the power it once had to control the user experience. The patrons are gaining power. The Internet is empowering them.
As more and more content is transformed into digital data – coming into the library over the Internet – this situation will spread out from the public-computing section to the entire building.
That doesn’t mean the staff will have nothing to do. But the job skills will change.
Classically, libraries exist because people can’t read the texts otherwise. Books cost too much for most people to buy a lot of them. Or, it takes too much time and trouble to hunt them down, a task librarians do better.
The emphasis has been on books, or books and CDs and DVDs. These have been the physical objects a library has been filled with. But now those objects are giving way to new objects – electronic devices that access data.
Increasingly, writing and images and sounds are being disseminated in the form of data. They have no physical dimensions, no volume – they don’t take up any space. They’re not the objects any more.
The objects are computing machines – desktops, laptops, e-readers, smartphones. One of these devices can access more material than all the traditional library buildings in the world put together ever contained. The library will supply some of these devices. Probably most patrons will bring in their own.
The relative cheapness of the devices and related service-provider fees reduces the economic advantage libraries have always had. And the new ease of conducting searches for content reduces libraries’ expertise advantage.
Will people stop visiting libraries?
No. For some, the economic and expertise factors will still be important. But for most, they will not. The majority will still come to the library for another reason – sociability.
Consider the future appearance of a library interior. Instead of a warehouse format, it will be a clubhouse format. The shelves will be dismantled to be replaced by chairs, couches, tables, large-screen viewing areas, and workshops. The meeting rooms, conference rooms, story time rooms, and study rooms will remain.
This will allow for a more social atmosphere.
Libraries have always had a social component. But it’s been subordinate. Now the main reason for visiting a library will be to converse and collaborate with others. The theme, as always, will be the life of the mind. The new twist – the library will be a minds-meeting-place.
Sure, you may enjoy being on the net at home alone. Still, when you get a yen to rub shoulders with others doing the same thing, or to share what you’re doing not only with online buddies but also with flesh-and-blood friends face to face, the library is the place.
The big shift is from the library building as a container for things, to the library building as a meeting place for people.
People will always like getting together in a physical space with like-minded folks. People will always like getting out of the house and going to festivals, theaters, and libraries. We are social creatures.
The library of the future will be a place for empowered patrons to share the life of the mind face to face with other empowered patrons. The new digital delivery systems will make it so.
Java – Coffee, Coffee, Coffee
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