The moderators at Digital Campus, from the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, recently hosted a terrific discussion on the future of publishing and libraries. Josh Greenberg, director of digital strategy and scholarship at the New York Public Library shares impressions & questions like this one, along with creative responses:
The role of library as a very visible part of the chain that gets a book in the hands of a reader is increasing going to be effaced by one or a handful of platforms, whether it’s Google or Optitrust or the Internet Archive. The basic questions raised for libraries, both traditional academic libraries and [those] that have a more independent role is what’s our identity — where do we stake our ground and how do we offer value if it’s not simply putting books in people’s hands?
Jennifer Howard, staff writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education describes how some librarians see increased information access as an opportunity for libraries to expand their value-add for users.
