Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
October 2006
Abstract
In tomorrow's library, students, teachers, and the public will increasingly partner with librarians. The public can become better acquainted with recorded knowledge. Academicians including students can search for recorded specialized and general thought contained on shelves in a building. Online technology will extend access as needed. Classrooms will extend the nature of recorded specialized and general thought as students, teachers, and librarians engage in recording and updating information in specific fields and liberal arts. Online technology to course content can allow anyone, anywhere, anytime to learn what class sessions are recording. Online and classroom capabilities empower people to learn and think inside and outside the building: another way of learning and thinking inside and outside the proverbial box. Libraries may borrow examples of empowerment from Reformation, theology, and democracy. Online libraries or information systems will be only a part of tomorrow's library. Access to recorded knowledge will not be completely online. This article takes issue with the increasingly popular belief that the computer's widespread use means online libraries will replace the library building along with its books, journals, and other printed material.