I’m working with several Canadian Federal Libraries at the moment, and am in contact with many others. It’s a time of great uncertainty for those in the library community, but for some, a time of great excitement as they grow their offerings, becoming, in a way, “un-librarians.”
Yesterday, I gave a talk to an assembled group of Canadian Federal Librarians at LAC. As always, the membership was curious and sharp as a whip – the Q&A with the speakers before me attested to that fact. And there was a great deal of compassion in the room as well – including a resounding round of applause in support of the HRSDC librarians.
I gave a short talk, based on the many client, librarian and senior executive consultations that I’ve been fortunate to do over the past couple of months, and Libraries Of Tomorrow is an overview of my chat. I spoke about only a fraction of what I learned, and I was hoping to be “usefully provocative.” Post-presentation debriefs with several audience members seemed to have borne out that the talk hit the mark.
Feel free to contact me with any additional queries. As mentioned, I am not a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the field of Library Sciences, but I DO know good business when I see it, and Information Services is a huge and prosperous market with an almost desperate clientele. I’m hopeful that many Canadian Federal Libraries will be able to transform themselves into this new role – one that is almost purpose-made for the skills and competencies of every good librarian that I’ve ever met.