‘‘ L
Libraries are becoming post-digital: rather than digital being a segment of the library, it’s a thread that’s woven throughout.
IBRARIES have long been pioneers of digital transformation, and the pandemic demonstrated just how digitally advanced libraries are. Although library buildings had to close in March 2020, most libraries, including ours at Lancaster University, remained very much open. Existing digital services and rapidly introduced new ones ensured we could continue providing value for our users. But where do we go from here, and how can we build a digital future for libraries to thrive? Automation and artificial intelligence are the hallmarks of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and it’s vital that libraries harness these for positive impact. Digital is integral to how we can, in the words of David Parkes of De Montfort University, “rewrite the library”1
. It’s
central to how libraries can be more than ‘just’ buildings and print books, how we can be partners and pioneers as well as service providers, and how we can be beacons of hope and positivity for our organisations and communities.
Here’s how we can position our libraries to build a positive digital future
Let’s recognise our shared journey. All libraries are impacted by digital, and collective efforts to understand the digital shift help us to think and act collaboratively. A great starting point is Research Libraries UK’s Digital Shift Forum webinar series:
www.rluk.ac.uk/ dsf-on-demand/.
It’s vital that digital is reflected through a library’s vision and strategy. In our library vision at Lancaster, The Library Towards 2025 (
www.lancaster.
ac.uk/library/about/library-towards-2025/), the vision’s ‘Digital/Physical’ theme articulates our aspirations. But digital isn’t a silo. It’s everywhere, and will be more so in the future. Think about everything libraries do: most of it is either fully digital, has a digital
September 2022
component, or is underpinned by something digital.
Libraries are becoming post-digital: rather than digital being a segment of the library, it’s a thread that’s woven throughout. Therefore, the binary notion of ‘digital’ and ‘in person’ services increasingly doesn’t work. A key part of our vision at Lancaster is to “position the library where there is no separation between digital and physical, inhabiting and engaging across both spaces”. Central to this is using technology to transform physical space, such as exhibitions that blend physical artefacts and digital representations. And approaches such as augmented reality will allow us to take this further.
Partnerships are essential to the post-digital library. Most digital activity is powered by systems from third parties, but we don’t have to be mere transactional customers. Developing meaningful relationships with vendors can bring benefits such as influence over future system developments, and opportunities to be development partners affords particular impact. If your resources and technical expertise allow, partnerships with other libraries can be especially powerful. We’ve experienced this with Lancaster Digital Collections (https://digitalcollections.
lancaster.ac.uk/), our image platform for unique and distinctive visual collections, based on software from Cambridge University, and developed through a consortium including the University of Manchester. As Lizzie O’Shea states in Future Histories, “Digital citizenship is a collective endeavor”2
, and the
most important partnership is with our users and communities. We need to engage with our users to understand their needs. But we must combine this with our expertise about the possibilities of digital, through dialogue with our users that challenges traditional notions of what libraries are. As Steve Jobs (perhaps
Thomas Shaw is Assistant Director for Digital Innovation and Research Services at Lancaster University.
apocryphally) stated, ‘no one ever wanted an iPhone until we showed them an iPhone’.
Partnerships with our users and communities also serve as a reminder that they, and not technology, belong at the heart of the library. When using digital technology, it’s vital to ask two questions:
l What problem is this going to fix?
l Will this have positive impact for our users?
Thinking in these terms helps to avoid hype around new technology, and ensures we use it because ‘we should’ rather than simply because ‘we can’. And it’s vital that digital poverty and exclusion are addressed, and that users can engage with libraries if they lack technology or skills. Indeed, libraries have been bridging the digital divide through providing internet access and digital literacy skills for over two decades, so we are ideally placed to lead digitally inclusive transformation. IP
References 1 David Parkes, Rewriting the Library in Digital Space,
www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/rewriting-the-library-in-digital-space-23-feb-2021
2 Lizzie O’Shea, Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology (London: Verso, 2019), 151.
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