Best For Users, Best For Librarians

In the new digital age, information is becoming easier and easier to access than it was throughout history. The technology that will be the most beneficial for library patrons is an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) because it allows users the ability to not only look up materials that are available through the library (or library system) but, as technology grows more advanced and the information is presented becomes further compressed and more easily transferable (if Moore’s Law continues as predicted), patrons will likely be able to also access certain materials without ever having to leave their home or office. A patron can download an audio book to their computer and listen to it on their MP3 player or a text to a portable reader or personal computer and never have to turn a page. In an ironic aside, monks of the Middle Ages preferred manuscripts because they are easier to read and copy than the large, awkward scrolls of antiquity. It’s only funny that so many younger generations are reading so much by scrolling through texts.

While OPAC allow the user to research materials, advances are also being made that allow researchers to locate and retrieve specific texts based on keywords or phrases. While such searching is possible even in the more rudimentary computing systems in libraries for their materials, digitally achieved periodicals and texts that have long passed into public domain (and even some that have not) are available in a digital format. Advances made through more sophisticated search engines that are possible with the potentially great leaps forward in technology will permit easier research on more specific topics and materials. At this point, the biggest problem with information is actually getting people to read it.

For librarians, integrated library systems (ILS) will most likely provide them with greatest advances that allow them to better oversee the relationship between materials and patrons in their library. Advanced systems that allow the users to search, reserve, and check out materials without any direct assistance from librarians also allows them to spend more of their time on shelving, sorting and acquiring materials. Though this might seem to be turning the librarian’s role into nothing but rudimentary busywork, I prefer to see it as allowing us the opportunity to make sure that materials are available as soon as possible for other patrons and that more time can be spent carefully reviewing and selecting items for a collection that best suite the needs of the public. A system that has integrated all areas of a library into one large database of information that patrons can access also allows them the time to browse for materials or use technologies like RSS to receive updates on new materials. This technology offers librarians a chance to make the public a much more active partner in the library, and as the information is available to all, I can’t think of a better way for them to learn how to play a part in is dissemination.