Some quick and immediate thoughts:
1. There is no substitute for a good - real, physical - library. Despite the Kindles and PDFs
2. Library professionals ought to adopt the latest technologies to make it easy for people to browse through catalogs and reading lists from their desktops. Sites like LibraryThing and Safari are good examples for sharing one's virtual bookshelf. This could be a part of the KM system
3. e-Formats of books are essential in certain situations and cannot be avoided
4. Library activities should be extended to allow people to have conversations, collaborate and engage in group-reading or thinking
5. With the onslaught of e-readers, I am not able to predict the impact it will have on physical libraries a decade from now. Environmental preservation may lead to people being encouraged to read books online rather than depend on print.
2 comments:
Once I had spent a lot of time in the IISc library. Recently I met an IISc professor and asked him about the library, he said - nobody goes there nowadays.
Srikumar
I think that's really sad! :-( I guess people are happy reading everything on their PCs and laptops! I used to love the Library Hour when I was in school...
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