What will your local public library look like in the future? A digital-age gathering place that’s still a monument to the printed page? Perhaps shed of its physical walls and transformed into a virtual library, accessed by patrons from their homes, businesses or open public spaces? Or…?
The sentiment is nearly universal that the public library – open to and serving all strata of a community – is an asset and public treasure to be protected as well as updated as it necessarily transforms for the digital age. In the mountains of Colorado last week, a group of library leaders were joined by thought leaders and decision-makers from government, technology, business, academia and philanthropy to consider and plan for the future of the public library. Assisted by facilitators at the Aspen Institute, participants in the Leadership Roundtable on Library Innovation, part of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries and supported by Knight Foundation, worked over three days on proposals to guide libraries through a difficult march toward future relevance.
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