I started lesson #8 by reading Rick Anderson's article on "Away from the Icebergs", and found it to be very informative. In fact the area of "just in case print collection", really tells the tech story. We can't afford the space and no longer need the volumn print collections. Patrons more and more will access the new avenues for all mterials. Still I can't imagine, on a snowy afternoon, in front of the fireplace, reading a book on line. Somehow that just seems wrong.
Continuing the reading in lesson #8, I thought perhaps things had gone too far with 4.0 and the description Dr. Wendy Schultz provided of the dream society, where libraries are mind gyms or art saloons, having not replaced libraries 2.0 and 3, but absorbing them, being mobile, providing all manner of information to our enlighted patrons. These spaces will be comfortable, gracious places with private sponsers, good lighting, find coffee and single malt, but wait, we're doing all of the above now, well everything except the coffee and single malt, and somehow it seems we have arrived back to that snowy afternoon in front of the fireplace.
This is such a complex subject, I really do not feel I understand all of the changes being made now and those certainly just around the corner, in services libraries provide patrons and of course the changing role of librarians, staff and patrons as we proceed into this new tech world.
I really hope that our libraries do not go the way of major corporations, where the library assistant answering the phone is in India or the Phillippines. If that happens I've got the straw and I'm looking for the camel.
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I think you're right, the comfort element of libraries, comfy chairs etc aren't going to go away because our patrons don't want them too. The challenge is going to be expanding into the digital world while improving the tangible one at the same time. A big challenge given our lack of funding for either!
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