Study of Future Public Library Trends & Best Practices

ABSTRACT

In their dual roles as community hubs and knowledge facilitators, libraries of the future will experience major change: they will have fewer books and increased available physical space; they will shift from content warehouses to content creation enablers; they will serve new types of visitors including digital natives, knowledge creators, and entrepreneurial learners. These trends will affect four tools used to achieve library goals: technology, collaboration, physical space, and people. This article summarizes a literature review, performed on behalf of the Squamish Public Library in British Columbia, Canada, that examined these future public library trends.

KEYWORDS:

• Future
• collaboration
• technology
• trends
• creativity

Looking Ahead

Perhaps the biggest challenge moving forward will be managing and prioritizing all the exciting and innovative ideas that public libraries and their communities will generate. But sorting and spreading information is what libraries are good at, so bring on the future.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie Palmer

Marie Palmer is a library consultant based out of British Columbia, Canada. For nearly two decades, she has worked in the public library sector in a variety of roles including reference librarian, project manager, and consultant with the BC Libraries Cooperative. She continues to consult with libraries on a variety of organizational and technology topics.