A lot of meetings, trainings and information sessions I have attended this year have examined the idea of the Library of the Future. Some ideas suggest that libraries will have less and less physical items on shelves and more digital material that can be accessed by members 24 hours every day of the week. For many of us who work in libraries this is a difficult concept to get out heads around. For others in the industry of recreation, information and education the whole idea of the library being a digital gateway and a gathering place of a thriving community is something they have already been doing for years.
In my mind the library of the future needs to be a reflection of its community. The community with a high number of internet users at home could run a streaming service for their community to download from. The library whose community has little to no household internet users would get little benefit from this but offering free internet would be a HUGE benefit.
We as library staff now have an important role to play in engaging with the users and non-users of our communities to discover just what it is they need us to provide. We are on the top lip of a downward hurtle of our busiest time ever... We just need to make sure we aren't left behind, stuck on that lip, unable to take the plunge. All I know is that the library of the future will be less about the books... Already now we need to be 110% community focused, before the community focuses 0% on us...
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