Libraries of the future — for the community
A State library is a resource that should be accessible to all and with the shift form the physical resources of the library to digital resources there needs to be a change in the culture (Alden, 2006). Libraries are no longer a building where people come to work in a quiet space and consume knowledge or should they be a place where knowledge is only disseminated in a digital version. The getting of wisdom doesn’t need to be in one place as people can now access this information from anywhere.
Libraries need to rethink their position and evolve. Think out of the box and look at the people of differing communities they can help by providing an array of knowledge they can access, manipulate and then give back to the community. Information is digital and libraries can support a small community near the library, such as a school with little resources or a community in a rural environment where the library is limited or non-existent.
The library of the future is not about using technology and ICT to transform previous masters into a digital version (John Dolan — Guardian Newspaper) but about creating new resources for people to use. Many smaller community libraries are working with the people of their community becoming a centre where people with similar interests can be guided through a process of learning through workshops on specific topics or instructional sessions.
From the requirements of the Brief my blog post is connecting the libraries of the future can transfer knowledge they possess to the community. It has been shown that just existing as a library (a large physical structure where certain people can use and obtain knowledge) isn’t enough. With the ability of knowledge being digital people can access information from the library and transfer it to their own digital devices for their own personal use.
This ability to access and use digital information allows the libraries to build connections to many and varied communities. From our constraints we identified that there is still a strong need to connect to schools and especially those schools of low socio-economic areas where students may not have the physical resources to support their learning. The design brief highlighted the need to provide for the rural communities and the facility of being able to access information from a major library via personal devices or at the local library allows these communities to be knowledgeable and informed. Facilities that would only be thought of for the people of major cities. Crystle Martin, 2015 quotes Miguel Figueroa who believes libraries are about people making things together and sharing of ideas. . peer to peer and community focused.
