It's not about revolution

Published on 20110908
 

Iflas yearly conference is a fantastic place meeting librarians from all around the world. You seldom otherwise meet so many enthusiastic people in one spot as in the Ifla yearly conference.

ALA summer conference have the same level of energy but is more homogenous, not so excitingly diverse.
 
Somehow in the talks with librarians and listening to the presenters, this year, I got the feeling of a change of tide. From counteracting the imagined downfall of libraries with endless discussions of the role of the librarian now libraries seem to initiating a whole scale change of library work. But still with the basic values driving the change, like promoting literacy.
So it's not about revolution. It's about restructuring. Restructuring the assets. The localities, the media and the staff. A restructure based on the new and developing media and communication landscape. A constant change paradigm with the users involved in the decision processes and also being part of the services.
 
In one of the sessions Claudia Lux (Chief Librarian from Berlin) talked about her citys prospects including a new huge library and a cooperation with the ethnological museum and the museum of Humboldt University. Her theme is "Reinvent the library before the move". She says reinvent. That is very important. She is not talking about new roles, or a new playground. She is in to (anyway how I interpret it) that libraries should do what they are always doing but accommodate to the new environment. Especially interesting is how the library build their services around “breakpoints in life”. The library should be like a friend through all phases of the users life. Jaana Tyrni from Espo, Finland is talking about rethinking the service – look for the future and not the present. To give directions and not detail is part of the management idea. Judith Hare from Halifax is emphasizing the citizen participation in library design. And so it goes on. Maija Berndtsson from Helsinki, Finland is talking about changing the work from transaction orientated to communication and relations.
 
The users are part of the transitions, the staffs abilities are recognized and it seems that libraries are now changing. Not the direction, not the content, but the ways of communication and with a new approach to the user.  An all this underpinned with an understanding of constant change.
We imagine that this themes will be discussed at the 3rd Axiell Symposium in London, 2-3 November 2011, http://www.axiell.com/london .

 
Written by: Boris Ukotic Zetterlund
Categories: ifla 2011
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