Librarians help us gather the correct and important information. There are many websites and texts that are fake or consist of misleading information. Librarians are helpful because they take their time to give a helping hand in any information that we need help finding. The information that they help us find is information that we can trust is true and reliable. Also, librarians teach us how to find this information on our own, so in that way we can grow and become better researchers in the future. They are also there in hours that we would not be able to make it to a library, doing this is very helpful because it means that we do not have to physically be next to a librarian in order to get help from them. Something new that librarians could do would be to email persons what books they recommend or what books would interest a particular person. A good way to start this would be by starting a sign up list on each different genre. Then, the librarian could look up interesting books and email a list to those who have signed up. This would be helpful to many who do not know a wide variety of authors or are interested in reading new types of genres. The library of the future might look something like a digital library. We have already started to have digital books and searches, having a digital library where people would read books online would be helpful to those with busy schedules. Librarians are people who like to help others and for that they are appreciated. With their help, the library of the future might be something that comes soon thanks to their reliable help.
You are definitely correct that librarians help people find the information that they need. The idea of notifying users of items in the library's collection that might interest them is a great one. Librarians have done that, and they still do. The main difference now is that librarians don't make the actual list of items. Instead they teach users how to "save a search" and then the saved searches are automatically run every day, or once a week, and any new items are e-mailed to the users.
ReplyDeleteI think you are correct that the library of the future will be a digital library. For our library, we receive only 9 journal titles in print format but we get over 33,000 journal titles electronically. I think there will still be some print items in the library in the future, but the majority of items will be digital.
Melissa De Santis, MLIS
Deputy Director
Health Sciences Library
Univ of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus