Are librarians preoccupied with the future? There are countless books, articles, blog posts, webinars, and conference presentations filled with speculation about what libraries will become. This is understandable with the emergence of new roles for libraries and librarians as we determine our identity across the digital landscape. This essay…

In this essay, we embrace a vision of the future of academic libraries where librarians confront and creatively address the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within our profession and actively pursue a social justice agenda within our libraries and in the communities we serve. This future requires that we acknowledge that many of our current…

Few academic librarians ten or fifteen years ago would have believed that those days of flat-lined budgets and miniscule raises could ever seem a golden (or at least silver) age by comparison. It turns out that there is something even worse than uncertainty, however--the absolute certainty of budgetary constriction and unwise decisions.…

In a time of increasingly digital distribution, challenging questions arise regarding what people own, what they want to access to, and how they develop and maintain collections. What considerations influence their decision making, as individuals and libraries shift toward more subscription-oriented content? Digital access to e-books and…

In this article, I imagine a library that prioritizes teaching users how to find, evaluate, and use information over the traditional library public service activities of collection development, access to materials, and reference services. If I ran the library, all services would support end-user education. (Contains 1 graph and 1 note.)

One of the first big shifts in how libraries manage resources was the move from print-journal purchasing models to database-subscription and electronic-journal purchasing models. Libraries found that this transition helped them scale their resources and provide better service just by thinking a bit differently about their services. Likewise,…

Librarians frequently utilize product trials to assess the content and usability of a database prior to committing funds to a new subscription or purchase. At the 2012 Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference in Austin, Texas, three librarians presented a panel discussion on their institutions' policies and practices regarding database…

Librarians face a dilemma, one to which most of them appear to be oblivious. Everybody knows about lots of modern problems that confront libraries and librarians these days. The problem under discussion here is of another order altogether: that librarians are taken too seriously by some of the populace they serve; that they sometimes do not take…

It is a fun parlor game to speculate about what the future of books will look like. The author wonders whether stories will be read on screens and supplemented with gaming, illustration, video, and multimedia riddles. In this essay, the author shares his vision of the future of reading and describes what he learned from writing a story based on…

Throughout the history of library automation, the author has seen a steady advancement toward more open systems. In the early days of library automation, when proprietary systems dominated, the need for standards was paramount since other means of inter-operability and data exchange weren't possible. Today's focus on Application Programming…

Since most libraries are now hosting their own web sites, this author advocates for a social network centered on the work of building and supporting resource-rich library sites. While there are already several social networks for books, books are just one thing that libraries make available. A social network that helps people share what they are…

Do all schools need brick-and-mortar libraries? In this article, Johnson and Mastrion share their contradictory thoughts to the question. Johnson says some schools don't need library facilities or programs or librarians. These schools' teachers and administrators: (1) feel no need for a collaborative learning space; (2) feel the ability to process…

This article presents an excerpt of Library Journal's (LJ's) Movers & Shakers ideas on how to ensure a vital library for the future. Several identify a disconnect between what librarians and libraries do and what users think they do. Mending this gap, they say, would transform library recruitment and library support. While specific insights on…

In a time when information self-service and enhanced competition have sent libraries of all types into an oftentimes desperate search for a renewed sense of purpose, a fundamentally important question takes center stage: How can libraries connect with the deepest aspirations of their service communities? This article describes a new library…

Mere days before the announcement of the new children's book ambassador, speculation was still running wild. However, when the Library of Congress introduced Katherine Paterson as the new kids' book ambassador on January 5, the choice was greeted with unrivaled enthusiasm. A two-time winner of the Newbery Medal (for "Bridge to…