Building partnerships, influencing stakeholders
Libraries need to collaborate and influence a number of different stakeholders, including
- Publishers - new licensing and distribution models are required!
- Government - often a short sighted stakeholder! More work to be done
- Citizens - important stakeholders who act as stewards of the library brand
- Technology providers - they could become better partners - we can and should work with them to enable this
Libraries as content creation centres
Libraries can play a role in enabling self-publishing and in helping authors find audiences. In fact, libraries should consider becoming a publishing brand or an imprint. (Interestingly this idea was suggested by both Allen and Gareth in their presentations). Other opportunities include enabling hyper-local journalism. Libraries could offer a TV studio and other media tools.
A vision for a next generation resource centre
- A lab - where people can explore new ideas
- A reading room - where people can borrow in any format
- A social marketplace - libraries should provide a space to collaborate
- A content creation centre - providing pop up editorial services
- An incubator of ideas and creativity
Finally, Allen provided two other visions - one of librarians as 'the ultimate recommendation engine' (especially when networked with other librarians) and reminded us of something it might be easy to forget in challenging times:
Libraries do not need to 'go social' - they have always been social!
The Axiell Symposium was held in London on 2-3 November 2011.
Photo courtesy of Michael Francis McCarthy via Flickr.