The Future of Libraries

I ended up reading all 5 perspectives on Library 2.0, but have comments on only 2 of them.

Away From Icebergs by Rick Anderson. I kept wondering where Anderson lives and who his patrons are. As he listed the three things threatening our future success, he made it seem like the only thing patrons are interested in is tech items. Maybe his library is showing a decrease in circulation, but the numbers at our branch are only going up.

Intro A New World of Librarianship by Michael Stephens. It seems as if Stephens was the only one who acknowledged the social aspect of libraries and the needs of ALL patrons. When I think of the patrons of our small branch, few are technologically advanced; I spent the evening assisting a woman on the computer trying to type a letter and I showed a co-worker how to copy and paste in a word document. A far cry from Mr. Anderson's world.

If anything, the 5 perspectives gave a glimpse into the future of libraries and encouraged me to think about the direction we're going in. But we're not there yet.....