Doing well by doing good: How libraries can reclaim their role at the center of the information universe

Abstract

Over the past two decades, a tremendous gap has emerged between the media experiences delivered by consumer companies like Amazon and Apple and those delivered by the library. The reasons for this are many, including a perception by library vendors that libraries themselves move slowly and feel no sense of urgency to innovate on behalf of patrons. The ever improving consumer media experience is the biggest competitor to the role of the library in the future. There are clear steps both public and academic libraries can take to remediate this, including demanding faster innovation from vendors, finding new roles for themselves in the content value chain and finding balance between the practicalities of 'running a media business' and the larger mission of the library.