Future of Libraries

Guaranteeing free access to knowledge and information is the primary goal of public and research libraries in Germany. How is the German library system structured, and what challenges do they face within the sector?

Libraries create a future. Their own is uncertain. Start of the “Future Libraries” series on the libraries of tomorrow.

How can libraries help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals? Following its International Summer School, the Goethe-Institut has awarded prizes to three projects in Russia and Ukraine that address social and ecological issues.

Ville Vaarne, communications manager of the Finnish Library Association, has received over 200,000 hits with a Youtube video about US President Trump. For Vaarne the proof that social media is a must for libraries.

Libraries have always offered their users a share in cultural memory and knowledge of the times. This has not been changed by digitization. But the manner of knowledge transfer has.

“Nobody expects libraries to save the world, but we are in a perfect position to do just that,”say Rebecca T. Miller and Rebekkah Smith Aldrich. In this interview, the two US library experts explain why the belief that digitisation makes libraries irrelevant is a myth.

Public and accessible meeting space becomes increasingly rare and high quality education remains out-of-reach for many people. Nico Koenig and Grif Peterson from “Peer 2 Peer University”  talk about the potential of libraries as a shared space for community building and lifelong learning.

When modern libraries are discussed, the staff is often envisioned as experts in digitization, integration, inclusion. „But it’s unfair to ask someone to learn everything“, says Nate Hill, Metropolitan New York Library Council.

Libraries are ill-equipped to fight fake news, critics say. Maybe they were celebrated too soon as bastions against misinformation. But as part of a network they can certainly act against manipulated reports.

Libraries increasingly define themselves as educational and meeting centres. One important element is architecture – which sometimes calls for climbing in hiking boots!

Hardly anyone still prophesies the end of the libraries. Instead, the discussion is about how to support them for the benefit of all. A thoroughly optimistic summary of our series “The Future of Libraries”.