The National Library of New Zealand ran a campaign titled, “In 2017, Libraries will be…” Like much user-contributed content, there are quite a few boring responses - no need to click through the entire flickr set. Still, it’s worth a look. Here are a few of my favorite contributions:
If I were to take a moment to think seriously about the future, I’d say that this entry comes closest to how I would have responded:
Let me be clear - it’s not that I think librarians are all forward-thinking individuals who specialize in predicting and then meeting future user needs. Let’s face it, had we been on our game, we wouldn’t have allowed a company like google to come onto the scene and achieve rampant success with the mission of “organizing the world’s information.” No, I’m a pessimist. If libraries are going to survive, they must be willing to tailor their services to meet immediate customer needs, regardless of what kind of information is being requested and regardless of what format the user wants.
I am not a fan of shaving, but I may try to become a straight razor kind of guy. Of course, this may also mean that I become a rush-me-to-the-hospital-because-my-carotid-artery-is-gushing-blood kind of guy.
