Libraries in the digital world

Abstract

According to Umberto Eco, books share their fates with their readers. Carrying the idea forward, not only books but also libraries share their fates with their readers. The state of a society is well illustrated by the state of its libraries and by how information resources can be accessed. The aim of this article is to examine the impact of the neoliberal economic environment and the expanding process of commodification on libraries and their services. According to the statement of Nicholas Negroponte (MIT) in 2010, the physical book will be dead in five years. Although his provocative forecast has not been confirmed, the ratio of online resources in the acquisition of libraries is increasing. Technology companies have approached libraries to digitize their printed collection. Then the digital contents were sold, or used in accordance with their commercial interests to expand the advertising network. Information companies offered e-journals in large packages for sale to libraries. Despite their promise, the price of digital publications has not become cheaper, but prices have risen steadily. The economic crisis of the early 2000s led to the closure of many public libraries. However, libraries cannot become an ’information soup kitchen’, where equal access to data and information hides the fact that there is inequality in access to meaningful information or important knowledge. The tasks of libraries related to teaching include not only library and research skills, navigation on the web, information retrieval from databases and how to act as a law-abiding information consumer. They can teach about the production of information and current information economics, as well as part of information literacy programmes. Libraries play a role in electronic publishing through their digital collections and repositories.