What is the Future of the Library?
As books now flow onto the network, libraries no longer need to place them on their shelves nor do they need to buy copies of every book for each neighborhood served. From a purely technical perspective, there need only be one global digital library.
Peter Brantley wrote these words above as a way to illustrate the chore that we as librarians face in the next five to ten years. Peter is a much more elegant writer than I am so I won’t attempt to summarize his points. Just read the article and you will understand what we are facing. What value does our public libraries bring to our communities? Does a public library without books deserve the public funding it receives today? We are facing a reality where public funds will most likely become more scarce rather than more plentiful. How do we continue to provide value to the community in order to justify the investment made through our public funds? What do you think, BTC?
