‘‘ W Technology
In my lifetime, we’ve gone from pen and paper, or maybe a typewriter, to seeing a generation of adults emerge as digital natives, used to experimentation and flexing from one platform to another. However, being able to use technology does not guarantee expertise: I drive a car, but I don’t know how the engine works. There’s no doubt that the pace of change is increasing, accelerated by the pandemic, because we had to enable work, study and recreational usage in a library context through digital means.
Janet Peden, the Librarian at Ulster University, spoke of libraries facing a choice: change and remain integral or stay the same and become irrelevant. Many students now prefer to use digital rather than physical books. In some academic settings, journal articles are now almost exclusively digital.
Development
We need to ensure that library staff are properly equipped to respond and support their users through comprehensive professional development provision, a vital
June 2024
Libraries must always remain neutral, safe spaces for exploration and experimentation leading to personal growth and development...
ITH the CILIP Ireland/LAI conference in April, Building for the Future, library
conference season began. CILIP Wales continued that theme with their conference, Leading the Way Forward, while CILIP Scotland and CILIP are exploring information provision, access to ideas and learning and intellectual freedom and expression. I’ve been reflecting on how these themes are linked, the future landscape for libraries, the pace of change and sectoral responses to that change.
component of future relevance. While digital provision brings benefits, it can also lead to isolation and less human contact, which in the long term is profoundly damaging: we need that physical interaction. Aat Vos described Public Libraries as third spaces: not home nor work but places where people come together to interact. We need to think about the design of our libraries, how to make them flexible, adaptable spaces while still providing the core offer. What will current and future users want from library spaces?
However, the digital manifestation of this is one of the guiding principles behind LibraryOn, the single digital presence platform led by the team at the British Library. LibraryOn recognises the need for the library community to have a digital front face where conversations can take place, alongside easy discovery of local, national and international activity – something still not achievable through local authority-based library websites.
AI future?
Every library conference has AI high on the agenda, but we are still exploring exactly how to incorporate it into the library offer and maximise its potential, being reactive in our approach rather than proactive. CILIP’s Come Rain or Shine can help. A strategy developed to be future-proofed, it provides a blueprint for analysing current positions and developing a response based on user need in a rapidly changing environment. Together with the Future Libraries Toolkit, based on Futures Literacy, it supports library services to think about the future in a different way and, using that thinking, to develop a service plan. Heralded by an article in Information Professional, you can learn more at this year’s conference in Birmingham.
Sue Williamson is CILIP President.
But we need to be mindful of negative aspects too. Increasingly, driven by economic forces, success is measured in terms of library usage. It would be dangerous to use technology to go from recording usage levels to analysing what people read and using that knowledge inappropriately.
Libraries must always remain neutral, safe spaces for exploration and experimentation leading to personal growth and development, underpinned by open access to ideas and promoting independence of thought by comprehensive information provision. CILIP’s Managing Safe and Inclusive Public Library Services document is both relevant and timely, as we see libraries across the world struggling to maintain the independence of their collections, programming and information provision.
Exploring the issues surrounding that independence is a key part of looking to the future of our profession at conferences this year. IP
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