Libraries: Another Plea
June 4, 2011
In his “The Future of the Library” essay, Seth Godin highlights the roots of public libraries and librarians and their future.
He aptly points out that
the librarian isn’t a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.
I am not too keen on the sherpa thing. But the point is one with which the Beyond Search team agrees.
With the rise of services like Netflix and technologies like ebooks, libraries are no longer just about lending books and movies. They need to re-imagine their mission to stay relevant. He notes:
Just in time for the information economy, the library ought to be the local nerve center for information.
The library of the future features ”a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information to bear.” Information overload is real. Microsoft tapped into the frustration to market its Bing search engine. Godin presents exciting future for both libraries and librarians if both are willing to change.
Rita Safranek, June 4, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
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