I read an article in CNET News.com titled “College Library of the Future” which emphasizes Google’s continued efforts to digitize the biggie libraries (Stanford, NYPL, etc.), as well as the efforts of other libraries not on Google’s digitization radar. Nothing new on that scope, but what I found interesting was the ending comment of the article:

“The library that acts as a steward will have to learn what it means to capture and persistently manage new vehicles of information,” said Daniel Greenstein, associate vice provost of libraries at the University of California’s Digital Library project. “It will have to change in order to stay the same.”

The adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same” aptly describes how libraries have maintained a steady grip on the cultural front while being buffeted by the winds of social and technological change (I could enter this line in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, no?) through the judicious application of time-honored library practices (research strategies, information literacy, thoughtful reference interviews, etc.) and applying it to emergent and continually changing technological advancements and resources.

We adapt and absorb, using finely honed skills and experiences to wade through the never-ending mutation of library access and content delivery. The more we change the more we’ll stay the same because that has served us well in the past and, by gosh, should serve us well in the future.

Memo Cordova