Libraries of the future

There was a big debate about this at Oxford last week. Thanks to Susie Andretta I am linking to a short provocative piece by Adam Corson-Finnerty from University of Pennsylvania. Here's an extract :

"Re-deploy your people
Get your people out of supervising the study hall, standing-behind-a-service-desk, giving directions to the nearest bathroom.
Retrain Librarians as “Informationists” or "Informaticians" or whatever new term breaks them out of the old mold. Your new librarians will be full members of academic research teams, or will "team" with individual scholars, including undergraduates. "

and

"Emphasize training patrons in information-finding skills.
Emphasize digital self-help.
Emphasize collaborative tool-development with faculty"

As for the Oxford event, take a look at Bruce Royon's view of it

His verdict : Cornell, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton (oh, OK and Croydon)– the provenance of most of the speakers did tend to restrict the range of future library scenarios discussed; no reference to Information Skills training or to school or college libraries, or to the evidence-based agenda of health or government libraries, for example. Nevertheless, it was an event full of ideas and challenges, and worth attending, whether physically or virtually. But as I compared the grey hairs in the lecture theatre with the nubile avatars on Second Life, I was reminded of the late great librarian Henry Heaney’s take on Acts 2:17 - “Young men have visions and old men dream dreams – but the world is forever run by the middle-aged”

Pic above is the new Central Public Library in Cardiff