Comments on: 5.) Trends to Watch in 2010 – Bookless Libraries

By: S.M

S.M — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:47:52 +0000

If libraries are going to be bookless in 20 years, where will all the books go? In the bin? on people’s bookshelves at home? To the National Library? Won’t somebody want to keep the books for historical purposes?

What about browsing…. I e-read more often than I turn pages these days but I find it hard to browse for books online…. can’t explain why but it is not satisfying to see the online representation of a book and say “i’d like to read that”. I find myself more and more heading to a library or bookshop to look at the book, then going and finding it online to read.

There are many comments and predictions about libraries becoming community places, but what exactly does that mean? What are the nuts and bolts of this community place thing? It is hard to imagine a societal shift where the community will want to hang around and do “stuff” together.

By: Bookless Libraries | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen

Bookless Libraries | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 02:20:52 +0000

[...] are the sorts of arguments the experts make. I’d like to link to an argument that “in less than 20 years most libraries will no longer have traditional books in them”. The writer is a “futurist” who serves as a consultant to libraries and universities, [...]

By: Pam Murphy

Pam Murphy — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:44:22 +0000

I graduated with an MLS in 1987. There will still be a demand for printed volumes as not all people will be comfortable with the digital volume. This will be particularly true of the non-digital native. As the population becomes younger on average, the favor will shift towards the digital provision of books. Libraries will need to adjust and do so quickly.

Vendors will need to create contracts for providing digital materials via libraries to their customers. As public libraries are seen as a smaller share of the market, this will need to be encouraged for the vendors to create this opening in the market.

Libraries will shortly have the opportunity to re-engineer their services that is unprecedented and, potentially more challenging than adding automated services to their marketing mix which has occurred for the past two decades. I look forward to this reinvention of libraries as a service commodity.

By: Jerry E. Stephens

Jerry E. Stephens — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:45:08 +0000

I have mixed feelings about the “bookless library.” I do believe you are on to a quickening trend. I’ve been a librarian for more than 40 years (with a 1968 M.A.L.Sc. degree). Until about 5 years ago, I would have resisted the notion of such a library world, maybe even seeing it as an overly sterile environment. But the pace has developed to the point that well before 2010 the first photograph will be more the norm than second. I do, however, believe there will still be libraries with significant book collections. Some of these will be older books. Some new books will remain in paper formats. The library will change. You’ve addressed other ways that libraries will operate. These libraries will still require trained and talented professionals to help library users find just the information desired at the moment wanted. This is what librarians have always done.

By: Correspondence.org - What’s Hot Week (Dec 27, 2009)

Correspondence.org - What’s Hot Week (Dec 27, 2009) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:56:28 +0000

[...] Intriguing Predictions from Futurist Thomas Frey - Trends to Watch in 2010 – Bookless Libraries [...]