Thoughts on Things

Ok, to sum up (Thing 23) and ponder (Thing 15) what all this 2.0ness means to me, the library, the world, and the nature of the Universe:

Um... Ok, here goes... (The author stares at her keyboard for several minutes)

I am a young librarian. I just turned 29, and I have been at this, my first library job, for 4 years. I foresee working as a librarian until I retire. That's about 40 years to go, give or take. What will my library be like in 40 years?

To tell the truth, I have no idea what the world will be like in 40 years, let alone my library. I do know this: it will be very different.

I believe there will be a fundamental change, in my lifetime, in the nature of information, media, and especially concepts of copyright and ownership. It is becoming increasingly clear that content cannot be effectively "locked" in the digital age, and eventually the creators and "owners" of content will have to give up on tactics like DRM ("Digital Rights Management," which keeps library audiobooks from working on my iPod, among other things).

I believe that printed, bound books will still exist and be printed in great number, but print-on-demand will account for a huge part of publishing. Books and other "printed" matter will exist as flexible-format digital files, ready for P.O.D., display on a screen, or transfer to personal devices or e-paper. The library's collection will probably consist mainly of an access portal to these digital works, offering a multitude of formats for viewing/listening/experiencing.

I believe the chaos of incompatible & proprietary media formats that now compete for market share (Windows Media Player? RealAudio? iTunes? Adobe eBook?) will settle into a set of seamless cross-platform standards so that stuff just works, regardless of where you got it and what you're using to access it. And the continued evolution of social networking and user-created content will mingle with the evolution of formats so that there is a continual ebb, flow, and change in the content streams on the "Webbernet," as the Ask-A-Ninja likes to call what the Internet/World Wide Web/Worldwide Cellular network is becoming.

My place as a librarian in this ever-changing sea of information and content will be to help people access and use it in order to do their work, meet their goals, and enrich their lives. Just what we librarians do now, but with more and different "stuff," and in different ways. The "stuff" will be out there, supposedly free to everyone, but a divide will remain between those who "have" and "have not:"

• The technological tools to access the "stuff" on the network(s)
• The information literacy skills to find, choose, evaluate, & use the "stuff" they need and want

And I believe that public libraries and librarians will be there to bridge that divide. We will keep striving to provide the needed tools and expertise to everyone in our communities, so that no one is left out.

Oh yeah, and there will always be Story Time. I guarantee it.

mdlearn2 23things libraries future