Libraries, Archives, and Museums in the Twenty-First Century: Intersecting Missions, Converging Futures?

Abstract

Libraries, archives, and museums are places where we learn about ourselves, the world around us, and what came before us. They inspire us to make a better future by helping us remember and understand the past. As cultural heritage institutions, libraries, archives, and museums share common goals to acquire, preserve, and make accessible artifacts and evidences of the world’s social, intellectual, artistic, even spiritual achievements. Yet to what extent do common goals imply common means? What benefits might be realized by bringing professionals from these allied fields into closer communication? Asking these and related questions was the purpose of “Libraries, . . .