Is it about the books?
Friday, February 29th, 2008Why are we talking about The Future of the Library? Why is this such a hot topic? What emotions (and there is a lot of emotion surrounding this discussion!) have been triggered? How do we get past the emotions to a discussion of what’s happening?
In the 2005 OCLC Report, Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources it was noted that “’Books’ is the library brand”, even though 53% of the respondents indicated that they felt the main purpose of the library is information. Is the primary disruption to libraries the advent of digital information, and easy access to that information? What else is going on in the world that affects the role of libraries, and perceptions of libraries? How significant is the divide between perception and reality?
- Posted by Susan Wawrzaszek