News & Views, September 2010 (mp3 file; 4.79 MB; 5:06 min.)The Future; 2011 Summer Library Program Preview; "The Big Turnip"
At subcenter meetings last month our discussion focused on the the future and how libraries can continue to provide good service to patrons during the changes we’re seeing now and into the future. We noted that people are increasingly mobile--in more ways than one; that information and resources are more digital, that the concept of “community” is changing, that families are changing (and they’re busier than ever!) We discussed the impact on libraries, and ways that we can begin to meet the challenges of these changes.
The changes and the future will require us to continue being good stewards of the money appropriated and granted for providing services, and finding ways to make that money stretch even further. Staff will need to be ready, informed and skilled to make good use of the technologies that will be available, and that means time to keep up and to learn new things and skills. It will require us to keep listening to, and learning about, our communities--in the many ways that “community” is now being defined--so we can develop our services around their needs. It will require us to communicate in new, as well as traditional ways, and to balance our services between traditional and new.
We’re going to continue the conversation, especially about things we can do, large and small, to meet the challenges of the present and future, in an online session on September 30 at 9:00 in the SWILSA classroom Please plan to join us, and add your voice to the discussion and ideas.
