Thing #15: The Future

I enjoyed the articles so much. The authors' enthusiasm about the future of libraries was contagious, and I caught the bug. We all know that the coming of the internet has had an enormous impact on libraries in the last decade, and that we should prepare ourselves for a professional life of continual changes. It's the only way our profession and libraries have a future. Or we might as well put out the "Closed" sign right now and look into another line of work. But since we do think this is a valuable profession, and we certainly do want young people to consider it for their life's work, let's think positively. Let's anticipate that the powers-that-be will keep their eyes on the goal: those core values which a library stands for in the community and that make libraries essential in a democratic society. Changing technology can serve those ends, as the articles describe.
In particular, I got a kick out of Wendy Schultz' sweeping vision of the library of the future. She doesn't stop at Library 2.0. No, that isn't enough for this futurist. Ms. Schultz gives us a glimpse into the world of a 3D Library 3.0 and on to Library 4.0. The future may be books with avatars, favorite famous librarian avatars guiding us through virtual collections. In the 4.0 version, physical libraries will be knowledge "spas" with stimulating salon-like conversation and atmosphere, art and music, real and virtual book collections, leather chairs, coffee and single malt, along with all that technology has to offer. Great fun and hope I'm around to join her for a glass of wine (not the single malt type, me) at the library/knowledge spa. And I'm not taking anything away from her vision in saying that we already enjoy a few aspects of it already, even if it's not in 3D! In our library system, we are lucky to already have wonderful readers' advisors, an intellectual setting, stimulating atmosphere and real (ok, sometimes real bad) coffee. We even have our own almost-famous librarian (retired) avatar . Just check out Roberta Rood's Books To The Ceiling Blog ! http://www.robertarood.wordpress.com/ She offers insightful recommendations and her passion for literature is compelling.