I've had a read through a number of the articles about Libraries 2.0 and watched some videos on youtube about Web 2.0. They are quite interesting and thought provoking.
I think that the future of academic libraries and non-fiction collections will be affected greatly by the ever-developing information technologies. Even now many people are looking to the net for information rather than books. If I'm looking for a few facts or quick info I'll do a google search. Books are good for more indepth research but with time this may change. In many cases, for academic research it is already easier to look at online journal databases rather than try and track down the journals themselves.
One big area that I don't think will change much (except to become a bigger part of libraries) is the entertainment side of books and library collections. People wanting to read for pleasure are still going to want books to read, since reading screens is just not the same. DVD collections may disappear when downloading technologies become the predominant way of renting or buying movies, but I don't see paper and ink books disappearing any time soon.
I think it is a real possibly that libraries collections will change their focus to being more about entertainment reading, with bigger fiction and biography sections and smaller non-fiction sections supplemented by electronic info databases.
In any case, it will be interesting to see what the future brings for our industry.
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1 comment:
I definitely agree! What a shame it would be to see books disappear, but that's not likely to happen! There's nothin like curling up under a tree in the park with a good book :)
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