Future of Libraries event
Posted by Stephen Francoeur on March 11, 2009
The innovative Darien Library (host to Library Camp East 2006) is sponsoring a free one-day event called In the Foothills: A Not-Quite-Summit on the Future of Libraries, which the organizers are billing this way:
At many Library conferences these days, we focus on technology so intensely that often we forget to consider the larger work for which technology is just a tool. And perhaps not the most important tool.
Yet, information technology has proliferated and become “humanized” over the last dozen years to the extent that we are now in the midst of revolutionary change. Some even see that change as a threat to the existence of libraries.
As information professionals, we occupy a significant amount of space at the epicenter of that change–but how are we really doing? Are we helping to direct that change or merely responding to it? Are we leveraging change, or simply managing it? As the world of information production and consumption undergoes a complete transformation, how is our place in society affected and what are our responsibilities? How do we justify our existence?
John Berry from Library Journal and Kathryn Greenhill from Murdoch University (in Australia!) will be the guest speakers.
If you’re interested in attending (and checking out the library’s beautiful new building), more details can be found on the futurelibs09 wiki that has been set up for the event (there is also a registration page where you can sign yourself up).
