Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
interactions with users, also provide services for remote users. This may
be via an 'ask a librarian' chat line, e-mail, telephone or online tutorials.
With dwindling shelf space devoted to printed items, and with remote
assistance and support for users, we can but wonder about the future of
the physical library - but what of the staff? It seems clear that as long
as universities, colleges and schools exist as physical entities there will
continue to be a requirement for information to inform and support
learning, teaching and research. And the general public appears to have
a growing appetite for information, from freely available sources on the
internet to quality-assured information from reputable publishers.
At the beginning of this chapter we discussed the importance of
both the surface web and the deep web. Unless all information
becomes 'toll free' (and that seems unlikely in the short to medium
term) then there will continue to be a need for e-resource acquisition,
organization and management, as well as information literacy training
- and these require staff. Furthermore, evidence from the library
satisfaction survey LibQUAL+ shows that staff and students value
support and assistance from information professionals very highly
(Stanley and Killick, 2009). So, while the role and skills set of the
librarian will alter radically and many of the traditional activities of
librarians will disappear, there will almost certainly be a requirement
for staff in the digital information universe. However, librarians should
heed the words of Chris Batt, CEO of the Museums, Libraries and
Archives Council, speaking as long ago as 2000. He said that librarians
needed to step up to the mark in the digital age and that 'there needs
to be a fundamental shift in how librarians are trained and how they
perceive their roles' (Batt, 2000). Information professionals need to be
committed to changing the relationship between information and the
people who want it. We will need new skills, new organizational
structures and new partnerships. Change is already under way but
clearly more work remains to be done.
The bookshop of the future
The novelist Susan Hill recently wrote, 'Whenever I hear people
shouting, “Save the village store”, I wonder if they have been in one
lately, and the same goes for bookshops' (Hill, 2006). Times are tough
for bookshops, in particular for independent bookshops. The business is
