DiBello, Amy
Weir, R. (2012). Managing electronic resources (LITA Guide). Chicago, Ill.: ALA TechSource.
Ryan O. Weir's textbook Managing Electronic Resources was published in 2012 and predicts the library of 2020. Ebooks will change libraries and outnumber print books. University publishing houses will be making content available through Project Muse/UPCC, JSTOR, and other online platforms. The digital divide will increase in Third World countries and the poor and computer illiterate will rely on public libraries to bridge these disadvantages.
Behind the scenes, how we will work will also change radically. The split between print and electronic materials is impacting technical services departments and since everyone is already understaffed, the problems are only being compounded. Flexibility and skill acquisitions turn every day into another episode of MacGyver.
The libraries of 2020 libraries will revolve around eResources and libraries will have to find new ways to weather economic turmoil. Catalogers will be replaced with metadata specialists and job titles will be rebranded. Reference services as we know them will have to adapt to new user needs.
Distance education will increase as people become accustomed to working and learning remotely.
Special collection libraries and archives will continue to digitize and make collections available online. Consortia will become even more important and open access ventures will give vendors a literal run for their money.
Librarians have to be flexible multi-taskers who can solve problems, be technologically savvy, and able to communicate and negotiate with staff, administrators, and vendors in various contexts. They have to be courageous enough to lead and be diplomatic. They’ll be put in the tricky place of "managing" up their supervisors and stakeholders too. Managing people you supervise will require emotional intelligence, coaching, collaboration, and communication. We will need to abandon traditional hierarchies and work together as peers.
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