I believe that Librarians do much more than what people think they do. Not only do librarians put books on the shelves and maintain silence in the library but they also computer skilled and educate visitors to the library of the library’s tools. I see this everyday with librarians at my school who not only check on the books but are there to help us on research projects with the databases there and help us with issues with the computers. Without their knowledge of such things the library would be a far less useful place than it is now. I think it would be really cool if librarians began to go past the old traditional library with online catalogs and offer text digitally. I feel like as technology advances so does everything in our society, including libraries, no matter how much people fight the changes the new technology is put into our everyday lives. So, the library of the future will not only contain a vast array of computers but also will not have actual books in it. By the time I’m an adult I believe that libraries will become completely digital with nothing in paper form. Books will become will become digitalized and the “Kindles” or “iPads” of the future will replace them and allow people to have entire libraries at their disposal. However, the library will still be there though for those not able to access such information. The library will not “die” but it will actually just change how it provides its services to the public.
Good post, Yonas. You are correct in stating that librarians do more than what people think we do. Our profession has a lot of stereotypes (old lady with our hair in a bun who reads a lot, for example) and misconceptions (librarians don't do much other than shelve books or help people find books). There are all kinds of librarians in all kinds of libraries-- here at the Health Sciences Library, we have Web Librarians, an Electronic Resources librarian, and Emerging Technologies librarian, Research librarians, and more! Other universities have music librarians, business librarians, government document librarians and so on.
ReplyDeleteMany libraries currently offer texts in an electronic format that can either be viewed online or downloaded into an electronic reader like the Kindle or Nook. The Aurora Public Library, for example, has over 8,000 titles in their ebook collection. Our library has a number of textbooks available in electronic book format and will likely be adding more as they become available from the publishers. We're also going to pilot iPads checkout very soon. Students will be able to use several different cool apps such as one that will give them an interactive 3-D human anatomy model. All this and books, too! Not bad, huh?
Tina M. Moser, MLIS
Access Services Librarian
Health Sciences Library
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus