Surprise! It’s the Golden Age of Libraries
Zachary Loeb (who writes as the Luddbrarian on the blog librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com) notes that “although college students have a huge amount of information available to them, this does not automatically mean that they have acquired all of the information literacy necessary to really make sense of this mass amount of information. As a result the library staff becomes an increasingly important resource for students wading through the information glut, especially as library staff are often available to students in numerous ways (in person, e-mail, chat, by phone).” This is particularly true for adult learners who return to higher education after many years away from the classroom and who often find virtual research daunting.
Libraries aren’t going anywhere, but much like the saying “let’s videotape that” now meaning to digitally record video, “let’s go to the library” will mean something different.