Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Week 12 Reading Response

This week's blog post is less of a reading response than a video response. I haven't yet had the opportunity to take an online class, so I liked having this small introduction to asynchronous learning. The videos also brought up a lot to think about in terms of the present and future roles of the library. The first video, "The Future of the Academic Library" covered a great many topics. I chose to focus on one that coincided with one of the readings for today, "The Library as Place." One of the points made by the presenters in the video was that the role of the library is changing in modern times, and the physical space of the library should change accordingly. Rather than the library as a repository for endless shelves of dusty books, they should be reconfigured as learning commons or "infocommons" in order to serve users' needs.

The article on the physical construction of academic libraries made a similar point. Students and faculty today look at the library as a one-stop place for learning and researching needs. I can vouch for this from experience. I work at the reference desk in Memorial Library, and several times this semester I have answered phone calls during which a student asks where they can find a tutor, or get help writing or formatting a paper. They expect the library to offer these services, but I have to send them to various places across campus. Perhaps it would be better for libraries to become more integrative, and create space for different services besides merely providing access to books.

I can't say that I know what the ideal future library will look like. But it is obvious that libraries are no longer only a storage space for books. In my future career as a librarian, I hope to work with agencies such as the Council on Library and Information Resources, as well as library users of all types, to create a library space which is dynamic, integrative, and service-oriented.

To conclude, I would like to mention the other video. I found the video about the issues surrounding the kindle study to be very thought-provoking. I personally do not have any particular disabilities, and do not know anyone personally who does. It is easy to forget that some people do have disabilities and need differently accessible products, but this course has helped me to remember this issue. As a librarian, I hope to always be aware of the different abilities of my patrons, and to work to provide all the information the library provides to them in an accessible format.

No comments:

Post a Comment