Libraries' Future Seen From Paradise

Libraries’ future seen from paradise Brophy, P., Craven, J. and Markland, M. (editors). Libraries Without Walls 7: exploring ‘anytime’, ‘anywhere’ delivery of library services Facet Publishing, 2008; viii + 256pp; ISBN 978-1-85604-623-7; £44.95 (20 per cent discount to CILIP members).

Lesbos. A natural paradise in the Aegean. Just the place for a glorious September week away from it all! That is the setting for the biennial Libraries Without Walls conference run by CERLIM Manchester Metropolitan University’s Centre for Research in Library & Information Management. This volume contains the Proceedings of the seventh conference in the series: when the first took place, in 1995, remote service delivery was a niche concept meaning little more than access to library collections through union catalogues or interlibrary loans. Now it is becoming mainstream, mapping a major change in librarianship. At this event, speakers and delegates from academic and public libraries in many countries (about two-thirds of the speakers were from Britain) discussed recent developments and explored the future. While library services are still concerned with providing physical access to buildings, electronic access, often from remote locations, is becoming ever-more dominant. Papers presented at earlier LWW conferences have echoed this change, showing how libraries are pushing out the frontiers of their services. As Brophy points out in his Introduction, it is the library within walls that is in danger of becoming a minority interest! Christine Borgman was the keynote speaker covering the role of academic libraries in the scholarly information infrastructure: facilitating and supporting research data and enabling scholars from different disciplines to handle the ‘data deluge’. The 24 other contributions cover many initiatives: social-network based paradigms of ‘library’, scholarly publishing using open-access and library-based repositories, digital curation, challenging environments (in terms of both political infrastructure and traditionally-excluded user groups), new technology’s role in improving services and developments in information skills training. Picking the best from such a wide-ranging volume is difficult. There is a report on Denmark’s electronic research library and the story of how Britain’s government-funded internet gateways (RDN) reinvented themselves as Intute, as well as an examination of ethical challenges in distance learning. Also included are a paper on the equitable delivery of enquiry services, a study of user-generated content in libraries, and an evaluation of the African Virtual Library.

A previous delegate said: “the conference was, in many ways, the high point of my professional career”. Libraries Without Walls is obviously about much more than sun, sea and venetian castles! Ralph Adam July 2008