Technology is rapidly evolving which means that infrastructure and humans must keep up with these changes. With the advancement of the internet and the connectivity that it allows, libraries need to be evolving in order to remain seen as useful and necessary. The internet offers many opportunities for the library to evolve such as electronic tracking systems and user identification systems. Along with these advantages there are also negatives to consider such as privacy and expenditure.
By utilising an electronic tracking system for all resources within a library, it would allow patrons to access the items that they are looking for efficiently. They could look up their resource on a network and then using the app on their phone they could be sent directions specific to their library of where to go to retrieve their item. This could even be updated to a hot and cold system where the phone registers where the user is and tells them if they are going in the correct direction to retrieve their item. This would be useful for people who suffer from anxiety and social conditions that may stop them from interacting with the librarian. Whilst this won’t replace the librarian, it will allow the librarian more time to spend on other initiatives within the library.
The internet could also provide the opportunity for the user to create a digital library card that tracks the resources that they are borrowing and would begin to recommend resources based off the history. This could offer personalisation to the patron that could not be offered exclusively through the librarian who would have not read every single resource in the collection. Through this personalisation the librarian could utilise the system to purchase books of a specific genre that are extremely popular and could use the system to help them choose recommended books.
Despite all of these benefits there are downfalls to this technology. Due to the internet being accessible by nearly everyone, it leaves its users open to privacy risks. Hackers could track users and use their sensitive information on other websites (Bansal, Arora & Suri, 2018) which leaves the patron open to many issues.
Also, online systems are constantly being upgraded and changed. This alone is very expensive but when you add into the equation training to ensure that staff are up to date on how to operate the technology effectively it becomes almost too expensive to make it worthwhile implementing.
Technology is definitely advancing society but both the advantages and disadvantages must be considered before implementing these internet based technologies into the library to ensure that the longevity is sustainable in your environment.
References
Bansal, A., Arora, D., & Suri, A. (2018). Internet of Things: Beginning of new era for libraries. Library Philosophy & Practice, 1-7.
