Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY

Libraries and technology in our changing world: the human factor Sara Fine University of Pittsburgh, School of Library and Information Science, Pittsburgh It has become a popular pastime among librarians to talk about the future of libraries in a changing world, to analyse the impact that technological developments will have on libraries, and to consider how libraries will fare in the economic hard times that we all see ahead of us. But perhaps these are not the first questions that we should be asking. Perhaps instead we should be trying to forecast our own future in the information age and considering the impact of the information explosion on the quality of our lives. Only then can we consider the future of libraries; only then can we understand, make plans and develop policies for libraries that will be truly relevant to the future needs of our communities. The purpose of this article is to address the human factor and to indicate areas where library managers, decision-makers and policy innovators must be aware that unless the nature of human beings is taken into account, the best plans will fail and the most immaculate system will falter. If we could create the ideal library in a world undergoing rapid technological change, it would be designed for maximum beauty, comfort, efficiency and usefulness. Its resources would be comprehensive and current, developed with painstaking care and thoughtful deliberation over a period of many years, constantly weeded of obsolete and useless materials, constantly replenished by the best that is available. Its technology would be "state-of-the-art." The librarian would be skilled, highly specialized yet broadly knowledgeable, experienced, pleasant, and committed to service. So it would be if we could create the world as we would 134 „ Thoughts in the library "