Conclusions emerging from an event, 'Les Lieux de Savoir à l'Ere Numérique', held at the Library of Geneva, Friday 14-15 October 2021.
Libraries are a historic institution in many countries, stretching back at least to the Ancient Greeks, where one of the most famous libraries of all, the Library of Alexandria, invested in copying and translating scrolls, as well as expanding knowledge - for example, of human anatomy through dissections and vivisections of human bodies.
Modern-day libraries perform many functions, from collecting books and artifacts to ensuring their accessibility and recording history as it continues to happen.
Questions of how libraries should equip themselves for the digital age were at the centre of an event and panel discussions at the Library of Geneva on 14-15 October.
As countries grapple with accelerating digital transformation, they increasingly face choices about how to approach, invest in and preserve national heritage documents, libraries, and the vast array of associated print and digital collections.
The Swiss National Library, for instance, operates under a mandate from the Swiss Constitution to preserve information relating to Switzerland and the Swiss people. Like other libraries worldwide, it finds itself under pressure to digitize its wide-ranging collection of sources and materials and preserve its heritage.
However, according to Jean-Frdéric Jauslin, President of the Swiss Library Service Platform, a paper document is often easier to preserve than a digital one.
The costs associated with a book or document mainly relate to its acquisition costs, with low annual costs afterwards, whereas digital documents incur regular costs of storage and technological upgrades.
Accessing documents and data in different forms
Despite assertions that we must "digitize documents to preserve them for the future", the risk of obsolescence necessitates continual, costly technical upgrades to preserve digital copies.
Frederic Sardet, Director of the Geneva Library, pointed to a growing environmental footprint associated with digital storage.
Conversely, digital preservation has already started shaping new research and knowledge development. Some 85 per cent of all US doctorates now only quote online sources, said Professor Beatrice Joyeux-Prunel of Geneva University. Knowledge is increasingly delocalized and disassociated from physical spaces, she added.
Until recently, the vast amount of art that had been digitized was mainly North American, with a few examples from European collections. As a result, Joyeux-Prunel noted, most recent PhD doctoral theses into art history have tended to focus on North American art forms, potentially neglecting others.
New libraries for new times
Digital collections will not kill tangible, real-world book and document collections.
Instead, both forms will co-habit libraries for the foreseeable future, panellists concurred in the Geneva Library's "Places of Knowledge in the Digital Age" discussions.
To adapt to the digital era, libraries must:
• Increase the accessibility of their collections. Expanding digital collections is one way, but so are soft measures to encourage people to come into libraries. Suggestions include ending to rules of silence, developing reading rooms as interactive social spaces, effectively turning libraries into coffee-houses or co-working spaces, just as many bookstores are also doing. Librarians must become more digitally literate and help their audiences and clients with navigating digital collections.
• Remain trusted mediators. Libraries help the public and researchers navigate their collections to find information. Given the recent explosion in online misinformation, access to documents via libraries, with support from trained librarians, can help to verify authenticity and source quality.
• Curate and advocate actively. This means helping raise awareness about heritage. It also requires libraries to keep preserving history, digital and otherwise, in fast-changing, information-saturated societies.
• Analyze reading and research trends. Libraries can draw on extensive metadata about their collections and cataloguing related websites and links. They are well placed to help answer key questions, such how people obtain, understand and follow news these days, assess the user-friendliness of different platforms, and forecast the future of publishing.
• Continue to diversify. To stay relevant and visible, libraries need to host events and exhibitions, bring their content to life, and serve as permanent knowledge exchanges. Libraries and librarians must take the initiative to collaborate with new partners and adapt to provide new forms of content, including podcasts, audiobooks and 'meet the author' interviews on topical issues.
In summary, as more people spend more time reading and researching sources online, the future for libraries looks far from bleak, as these public spaces continue to evolve, with key consequences for how people access information and knowledge moving forward.
