Libraries in the Next Decade,
a discussion with SIRLS Director, Jana Bradley
Recently, I was asked three questions about libraries in the next decade, as part of a survey of library school directors. I would like to share my answers with the SIRLS community.
1. Describe your vision of the direction libraries will take in the next decade. What do you expect to change? What will stay the same?
In the next decade, I expect successful libraries will be those that continue to adapt the principles and practices of librarianship to the changing knowledge and information environment of the next decade. These changes are highly visible as technological changes, specifically the increasing dominance of networked knowledge and information, but other changes in society are also having an impact on the knowledge and information environment, including economic and political changes, the increasingly global nature of the knowledge and information environment and the needs and pressures of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual societies. In terms of specific directions for the adaptations, I would expect several, already in process, to continue. I would expect that libraries will continue to see decreases in walk-in reference traffic and will continue to explore ways to be useful to their constituencies at the point of constituency need and request. I would expect that libraries will continue to rethink the role of the physical library as a destination, identifying the needs, within a community context, such as the needs of groups like parents and young children, and retiring baby boomers. I would expect that libraries, especially academic libraries, will continue to struggle with what the print collection should look like, in terms of shape, size and usage statistics. I would expect that more and more libraries will focus on shaping their collections, both print and digital, in direct response to user needs. I would expect that more and more libraries will assume roles in creating collections of digital materials of importance to their local communities and making them available globally. I expect that the role of the library as a creator and publisher of information will develop in response to the local needs of constituencies. I expect that we will continue to see the convergence of the information professions, and we will continue to see information professionals of different kinds working in libraries and librarians working in different kinds of information contexts. I would hope to see librarians continue to articulate the knowledge and skills they bring to the mix of information professionals. I would expect to see more innovative collaborations and partnerships across boundaries, including boundaries between disciplines and professions, between business and the academy, between institutions and their communities, and among nations. In the best scenario I can imagine, the relevance of the knowledge and skills of the LIS profession to the emerging environment will continue to be recognized and the profession will continue to be highly relevant to society as the decade progresses.
2. Describe your library school.
Our vision statement reads: Through research, education and service, SIRLS influences the understanding, interpretation, creation, and use of the emerging knowledge and information environment of the 21st Century.
Our mission is two-fold:
- To educate a diverse cadre of students who have the foundational knowledge and the competencies for developing, as their careers unfold, into formal and informal leaders in library and information environments and in the library and information professions.
- To foster interdisciplinary understanding of the creation, organization, management, access and use of knowledge and information resources in libraries and a multitude of settings and cultural communities.
Under our new degree requirements, effective spring 2006, our students will take core courses in the foundations of the profession, organization of information, research methods (in order to foster evidence-based librarianship and make them knowledgeable consumers of research) and ethics for library and information professionals. In addition, they will be required to choose at least one course from four lists of electives: management courses, reference and collection development courses, technology courses, and courses about library and information issues from cultural perspectives. Additional electives are available in knowledge organization, including cataloging and metadata management; online searching; information literacy instruction; information technology in libraries; economics of information; networking technologies; user interface design; digital libraries and more. SIRLS is the home of the nationally known Knowledge River program which fosters the study of library and information issues from Latino and Native American perspectives and also provides a scholarship program in these areas. The presence of Knowledge River has resulted in a rich array of courses that include the examination of topics from multicultural perspectives, such as Indigenous Information Services, Information Policy: Culture Perspectives, and Culture and Information Technology.
3. How is your library school preparing students for your future vision?
Our students’ careers will last well into the 21st century. We are striving to give them foundational knowledge in the principles and practices of the library and information professions. We also encourage them to engage with the emerging information environment so that they can practice adapting principles to changing situations. We strive to have a range of elective options that bridge the classic and the emerging aspects of libraries and information contexts. We also strive to include theoretical and conceptual perspectives in library and information science that will enable students to adapt to changing practices. Increasingly, we are striving to develop innovative ways to connect students with the best in contemporary librarianship and other information fields. For example, through a partnership with SIRLS and Phoenix area librarians, a new group, called Phoenix Friends of SIRLS has been formed to encourage the interaction between students and the profession and to develop innovative programming for the benefit of all. And finally, we are encouraging students to undertake their own voyage of discovery as they move through the program, discovering their professional identity now and what they want it to be in the incredibly diverse and exciting world of the library and information professions.
Jana Bradley
June, 2005
