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The Library in the 21st Century is very much a text book, but despite the rather heavy use of jargon I found it to be interesting and informative. Reading it through cover to cover quite quickly I gained a good overview of what seems to be the current issues in librarianship; the impact of digital technologies and competition from the web to libraries. It was focused on UK libraries which was nice. It gave a good background to the different types of libraries in the UK, repository (national), academic, public, school and workplace.
At times it appeared to get a little abstract, such as when discussing how the library was to supply it’s users with information and the barriers it had to overcome to be successful, but none of the theories it presented appeared to be too complicated and I’m sure those parts will make a great reference point when they are discussed on my course.
It, unsurprisingly, focused a great deal on the impact of electronic media, and ways librarians should capitalise and use this in their library. Digital and hybrid (mix of digital and physical resources) were discussed, as well as the problems of cataloguing digital objects.
Throughout the book the focus was on the library user and it seemed to be the success of the library was based on user satisfaction. This seemed to be quiet a marketing based approach to librarianship, which may miss out some issues, particularly in the place of preservation and heritage. Of course it also seemed to present a certain amount of homogeneity from the library users and seemed to indicate that everyone would want the same thing, and what everyone wanted would be what all the young people were doing nowadays, (being interactive web 2.0 stuff in general).
I feel like I should have taken more notes while reading it, but found it to be a very useful overview, hopefully no one else will check it out while I’m studying as it seems to be very expensive to buy (£35 cheapest on amazon). Horray for a decent librarianship collection here at work!
At times it appeared to get a little abstract, such as when discussing how the library was to supply it’s users with information and the barriers it had to overcome to be successful, but none of the theories it presented appeared to be too complicated and I’m sure those parts will make a great reference point when they are discussed on my course.
It, unsurprisingly, focused a great deal on the impact of electronic media, and ways librarians should capitalise and use this in their library. Digital and hybrid (mix of digital and physical resources) were discussed, as well as the problems of cataloguing digital objects.
Throughout the book the focus was on the library user and it seemed to be the success of the library was based on user satisfaction. This seemed to be quiet a marketing based approach to librarianship, which may miss out some issues, particularly in the place of preservation and heritage. Of course it also seemed to present a certain amount of homogeneity from the library users and seemed to indicate that everyone would want the same thing, and what everyone wanted would be what all the young people were doing nowadays, (being interactive web 2.0 stuff in general).
I feel like I should have taken more notes while reading it, but found it to be a very useful overview, hopefully no one else will check it out while I’m studying as it seems to be very expensive to buy (£35 cheapest on amazon). Horray for a decent librarianship collection here at work!
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