During COVID lockdown, people found other ways to socialise, shop, work and study. This had an on-flow effect sparking new trends and approaches to people connecting and conducting business. Librarians have also responded to these changes to improve library services and access products. Cox (2020) made some great prediction during the peak of COVID lockdowns in what libraries of the future will look like after the pandemic.
What is the potential for the future of an organisation you are familiar with?
Working as a teacher in schools, things changed dramatically during the pandemic, schools looked into innovative ways to teach (Softlink, 2023). This included how the library would service students online, placing greater status on eBooks and audio books that could be accessed from the online library system Oliver.Additionally, SORA further assisted students in their reading ventures and reading for pleasure. SORA assists with dyslexia by changing the font and can be used as a listening tool, reading to the student who can then bookmark its place and come back to continue from that page. Furthermore, the Education Department in Canberra added The World Book and Britannica as a research and investigative tool on Digital Backpack. These are age-appropriate based on the school. More recently, my school is considering online science, alleviating workbooks/sheets and borrowing out-dated books. The need for digitisation and online information is becoming more apparent and school librarian will need to be well versed in copyright and censorship material (Cox, 2020). Therefore, more funding into training librarians and acquiring new skills to better access and stream online information and eBooks is essential.
What impact might the future have on us as information professionals?
The pandemic has taught us many valuable lessons and one of these is, libraries need to take services to the people. Moreover, it has confirmed that teacher librarians (TL) must have a presence in school libraries. In Canberra, as with other states (except NSW) it is not mandatory to have TLs in libraries. As information professionals they provide training and learning support for online teaching and learning for students and teachers. TLs work with principals, executives, and teachers to envisage best practices in building relationships with other teachers and adhere to school goals and objectives (Softlink, 2023). They are curriculum experts providing greater input in designing learning programs and facilitating tools and resources for projects.
Cox (2020) states that libraries had minimal time to plan, closing face-to-face library services and moving to online. He adds libraries spent years curating digital content, providing numerous ways to research and interact. When libraries re-opened a new norm digital landscape was established.
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Reference
Campbell, H. (2023). Digital libraries empowering access to knowledge (Image). Storable.com. https://storable.com/articles/digital-library-empowering-access-to-knowledge/
Cox. C. (2020). Changed, changed utterly. Inside higher Ed (IHE). https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/05/academic-libraries-will-change-significant-ways-result-pandemic-opinion
Softlink. (2023). Future trends and services in libraries. Softlink. https://ic.softlinkint.com/blog/future-trends-and-services-in-libraries/