Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The Advances in Librarianship Series publishes the current best practices and innovative ideas in a rapidly changing information world which impact libraries as a social institution. Through in-depth chapters in all areas of library and information science and in all types of settings in which information is developed, accessed, preserved, and delivered, the series provides solutions that can be applied to make improvements in the field.

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The series editors are Paul T. Jaeger and John Carlo Bertot, University of Maryland. Dr. Jaeger's research focuses on the ways in which law and public policy shape information behavior, particularly for underserved populations. He is the author of more than one hundred and fifty journal articles and book chapters, as well as twelve books, and is Editor of Library Quarterly. John Carlo Bertot's research spans information and telecommunications policy, e-government, government agency technology planning and evaluation, and library planning and evaluation.

Read their article, 'Libraries, Inclusion, and the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act', as featured in American Libraries.

The biggest changes of 2015 are:

1. The increased move towards impact measures of library services has led to more emphasis on value demonstration, assessment, and quantification of library performance.


2. The building of digital platforms meaning more emphasis on creating, digitizing, managing, sharing, and leveraging digital assets and digital content infrastructures - and changing the notion of collection development.


3. Libraries have become platforms for making, creating, and designing with 3D printing and other tools, partnerships, and leveraging the “crowd” in their communities. Libraries are now more involved in facilitation of STEM education and learning, as well as economic development.

Our predicted changes for 2016 are:

1. Emphasis on sustainable development.
   
   Under the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, libraries will increasingly focus on how they can contribute to their community's challenges, inclusion, and access to opportunity. There will be a need to show connections between library services and movement towards achieving these goals.
   
   
2. Emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship.
   
   Whether supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in research or teaching on campuses in schools, or supporting the creation of start-ups in communities, libraries are increasingly a key part of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. This will require creative and dynamic leadership with staff who are social innovators and change agents.
   
   
3. Open access.
   
   The "open" culture is taking hold - whether for journals, textbooks, data, or other domains - and this is changing the nature of collections, resources, and how libraries work with their publishing, scholarship, user, and other communities to ensure access to quality, valued, and valuable content.