Another belated reading reflection. I’ve just caught up on the 2013 IFLA Report ‘Riding the Waves or Caught in the Tide? Navigating the Evolving Information Environment’
The report identifies broad trends that are shaping the information environment. These trends have been driven by technological change and range from access to education, privacy, civic engagement, and transformation of the information economy.
This report emphasised to me how important the role of librarian continues to be and how crucial it is we are prepared for change. As mobile devices become more ubiquitous, society becomes more hyper-connected and more government services go online, intermediaries will increasingly be needed to help those without digital literacy skills. Librarians will need to know how to deal with privacy issues once ‘Google Glass is in the building”. As providers of e-content we need to think about the responsibilities we have to protect our user’s data and how we will continue to support serendipitous discovery when the dominant mode of search is that of the algorithm.
Lee's Blog 