Libraries have had a long and venerable history, and are often highly regarded by users. From the first collection of clay tablets to today’s mobile devices, technology has played a key role in how libraries and librarians have been able to preserve and provide access to information for users. How users access information is changing, as is the image of library as “space.” However, even as libraries look to new technologies and services and reconfigure spaces for current and future users, some things remain constant. As noted by Okerson (2003, pp. 280-281), eight “eternal verities” exist with regard to library collections and services:

• Content is selectable
• Content is collectible
• Content is valuable and libraries retain it for the long-term
• Collections grow and provisions must be made for storing content
• Collecting can be the equivalent of long-term preservation
• Libraries and their collections are meant to endure
• Libraries exist to meet the information needs of users
• Information is global, and libraries preserve and provide access to information world-wide.

(Okerson, Ann. 2003. “Asteroids, Moore’s Law, and the Star Alliance.” Journal of Academic Librarianship 29, no. 5: 280-285.)

These “truths” must be kept in mind as libraries address challenges and opportunities facing them in today’s rapidly-changing environment. What are some of these issues? In their work Academic Librarianship (New York: Neal-Schuman, 2010)*, Camila A. Alire and G. Edward Evans surveyed a number of academic library directors who each contributed an essay on what they saw as the future for academic libraries and librarianship as a whole. A number of themes emerged from these essays, the most commonly-cited being:

• The need for radical change
• Effective adaptation of technology
• Increased role of digitization
• Library as place
• Addressing financial challenges (p. 329).

For many in the library profession, the above-cited issues are not new, but must be acknowledged and addressed as libraries continue to evolve into the future.

* This title is available at McKeldin Library, call number: Z675 U5 A427 2010.