Thing # 15 Libraries of the Future

I (and I'm sure many other librarians) have always believed and spent countless hours and effort to make my library welcoming, collaborative, and user friendly. But it has not always worked as well as I would hope for me. Schedules, life,technology-- and just little old me to staff and support all teacher and student users-- have not always made it possible to complete my "best laid plans" for meeting the on demand needs or training of each patron. I am encouraged when I see that so many of the web 2.0 tools do include attributes of simplicity, rich interactivity, user participation, and self service. As Rick Anderson points out, "services need to be easy to access without training" and we need to "eliminate barriers for research"-- so that our patrons are actually spending more time in reading and learning-- rather than getting bogged down in the teaching of research skills or how to use particular technology applications. I also agree with his statement that we need to integrate our library services into "daily patterns of work, study, and play.
I loved the comparison that Michael Stephens made when he stated that we need to make "libraries a social and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience" and equates the librarian as the "strategy guide" for helping users find information, gather knowledge, and create content. I really like that term--"create content". As Stephens stated, I also believe that the "future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume, and create content". Whether it is a first grader learning to read, a college student, or a member of the community. More than anything else I have seen on the web, I think that the simplicity, interactive quality, and user-friendly quality of many of the web 2.0 tools will make that easier than ever before. I related to the Vision of Student video since I often try to pack 26 hours of activity into a 24 hour day-- I think Librarians may have invented the term "multi-tasking" since we have been doing it for years!