Summer2005Q4

Summer 2005 Question #4

The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on collections and services in the next five years. An alternative approach would be to respond to this question: How will libraries [or another type of content provider of your choice] be different in 2010?

//3 ways i think public libraries will be different in 5 years://
 * 1) increased electronic access to information
 * 2) more training classes for the public
 * 3) finding/expanding users in the community

See: [|NextGen Librarians.] By: Shonrock, Diana D.. Reference & User Services Quarterly, Winter2006, Vol. 46 Issue 2, p7-11, 5p

Additional Areas of Concern for Collections and Services Issue One: Collection building and organization Issue Two: Preservation Issue Three: Equity and Access to All
 * librarians will focus on how to provide access to users for all forms of information
 * less emphasis on "ownership" of collection but rather an emphasis on how to access all the information available
 * Organizing the information in manageable ways for novice users
 * how do you preserve electronic journals?
 * What is the stability of preserving materials electronically? What happens to access of electronic materials when technologies are updated?
 * What happens when emails are deleted?
 * librarians will need to discover ways to continue the mission of providing access to all

(applicable to most library settings) · Increased digital collections will affect collection development · Self check-out machines will affect circulation operations · Increased patron desire for electronic reference will affect reference operations

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With the increase in digital collections, in addition to the items listed above, below are further thoughts on how these changes will manifest. This is largely brainstorming and I would be curious to see your thoughts on these.

Increased digital collections will result in: • Increased need for computer terminals sufficient to access the databases and other electronic resources o Are some terminals dedicated for digital collection access or will all terminals be used for both digital collections and Internet access?) • Increased need for staff to be proficient in use of these resources (greater than ever need to be able to multi-task) • Increased need for funding to keep the technology up-to-date • Increased need for space allocated for the increase in number of terminals • Increased need for policy reflecting user access to available terminals o time limitations during busy times when other users are waiting, o if users must be registered patrons, o policy for non-registered patrons) o policy for juvenile patrons, particularly when there is a separate children’s room Increased use of union catalogs will result in: • need to examine existing ILL policy and adjust if necessary • need to work with other members of the union catalog to determine acceptable policy • need for clear, user-friendly interface to make it clear to the patron when items are held “in-house” vs. available electronically vs. available only via ILL