bluesyemre

Urban or rural, public or private, large or small, libraries are living in a moment in which they are juxtaposed between their traditional role as a respected cultural institution and their emerging role as a dynamic platform for progress. In an age where innovation occurs at the speed of thought, how can libraries embrace technology as well as employ it to build stronger communities? Library innovation will transform the individual and collective institutions, but more importantly, it also will transform communities.
In August 2015, the Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society Program, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, hosted a Leadership Roundtable on Library Innovation, part of the Institute’s Dialogue on Public Libraries project. Leaders and policy makers from government, business and civil society were charged with exploring ways to accelerate the transformation of public libraries, with the realization that transformation will be driven by three factors:  new narratives about the library’s role in society, a culture of innovation that promotes new relationships, new networks and new forms of participation, and committed, transformative leadership within the library profession as well as from other community partners including government, media, technology and civic stakeholder groups. At the Leadership Roundtable, working groups were each asked to explore innovations in library practice in one of three areas where the library serves a critical role in communities: Access and Inclusion; Learning and Creativity, or Public Forum and Citizenship.

http://csreports.aspeninstitute.org/documents/Libraries_Exponential_Age.pdf