As we know, the times, they are a-changin’. While many professions are expected to advance and evolve with technology and our ever-shifting society, there is real concern that the library will no longer be relevant. Either it will die a slow, pitiful death or it will limp along, trying to turn itself into a circus to keep patrons. Well, I’m here to tell you that neither of those will happen.
Libraries have and always will be places of learning and knowledge. They are also a place of community and growth. They are a safe place and a place for resources, not just books.
One of the ways libraries are changing to meet the digital age is to take the beautiful collections that we have in print and digitize them, therefore expanding accessibility. The Walter Havighurst Special Collections at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio has published an article on just such a project. As of 2015, the Special Collections Department held half a million postcards dating from the 1880s to the 1990s. They were from around the country and the world. Even the library staff didn’t know what was in the collections, as the majority of it was uncatalogued. The project faced many of the usual roadblocks, funding, noticeability, staffing, and took almost three years.
Works
Bowden Postcard Collection Online Update: Donations, Maps, and More. (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2018, from http://spec.lib.miamioh.edu/home/bowden-postcard-collection-online-update-donations-maps-and-more/
Shawn W. Nicholson, Terrence B. Bennett. (2016) Dissemination and Discovery of Diverse Data: Do Libraries Promote Their Unique Research Data Collections?. The International Information & Library Review
48:2, pages 85-93.
I saw that article but didn't get a chance to read it. So interesting! I agree that libraries will adapt and change but will remain at their core as they always have.
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