Libraries’ future seen from paradise

Brophy, P., Craven, J. and Markland, M. (editors).

Libraries Without Walls 7: exploring ‘anytime’, ‘anywhere’ delivery of library
services
Facet Publishing, 2008; viii + 256pp; ISBN 978-1-85604-623-7; £44.95 (20 per cent
discount to CILIP members).

Lesbos. A natural paradise in the Aegean. Just the place for a glorious September week
away from it all!

That is the setting for the biennial Libraries Without Walls conference run by CERLIM -
Manchester Metropolitan University’s Centre for Research in Library & Information
Management.

This volume contains the Proceedings of the seventh conference in the series: when the
first took place, in 1995, remote service delivery was a niche concept meaning little more
than access to library collections through union catalogues or interlibrary loans. Now it is
becoming mainstream, mapping a major change in librarianship. At this event, speakers
and delegates from academic and public libraries in many countries (about two-thirds of
the speakers were from Britain) discussed recent developments and explored the future.

While library services are still concerned with providing physical access to buildings,
electronic access, often from remote locations, is becoming ever-more dominant. Papers
presented at earlier LWW conferences have echoed this change, showing how libraries
are pushing out the frontiers of their services. As Brophy points out in his Introduction, it
is the library within walls that is in danger of becoming a minority interest!

Christine Borgman was the keynote speaker covering the role of academic libraries in the
scholarly information infrastructure: facilitating and supporting research data and
enabling scholars from different disciplines to handle the ‘data deluge’.

The 24 other contributions cover many initiatives: social-network based paradigms of

‘library’, scholarly publishing using open-access and library-based repositories, digital
curation, challenging environments (in terms of both political infrastructure and
traditionally-excluded user groups), new technology’s role in improving services and
developments in information skills training.

Picking the best from such a wide-ranging volume is difficult. There is a report on
Denmark’s electronic research library and the story of how Britain’s government-funded
internet gateways (RDN) reinvented themselves as Intute, as well as an examination of
ethical challenges in distance learning. Also included are a paper on the equitable
delivery of enquiry services, a study of user-generated content in libraries, and an
evaluation of the African Virtual Library.
A previous delegate said: “the conference was, in many ways, the high point of my
professional career”. Libraries Without Walls is obviously about much more than
sun, sea and venetian castles!

Ralph Adam

July 2008