On November 14th and 15th, I had the opportunity to participate in a forum to discuss the future of resource sharing. Twenty-five people representing all sizes, types, and geographic locations of libraries were present. One of the goals was to consider the challenges we encounter in providing resource sharing services and think beyond current services to what we think resource sharing might be in future decades. The whole experience got me to thinking more about barriers.

One activity had us listing both problems and solutions for resource sharing. All the while, we wanted to stay user focused. So many of the problems we listed, though, seemed to lead back to policies, libraries, and staff issues. I found myself wondering, ‘what if WE are the problem?’ Our rules, policies, practices, need for control, barriers, multiple systems, confusing procedures, and all the checks in place for those just-in-case/exception situations are making it difficult to provide convenient library service to our users.

Read this post from A Wandering Eyre. Jane talks of her Freshman Comp class learning to use the library. Asked to come up with synonyms for “technology,” they surprised her:

“These students, about 8 years younger than myself, think of what they do with technology as opposed to the object of technology. Their attitudes are completely different than what I expected.”