New media and new roles of librarianship: Illustrated by a literary website of Danish libraries

Abstract

Purpose

To argue that library web sites embedded in a new media environment initiate and demand new kinds of communication and new communication skills.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a short version of findings related to the author's research of the internet as a medium in libraries, especially in the domain of imaginative literature. The paper is based theoretically on findings of new media research. The approach is a theoretical clarification of what is new about new media and why new media may move librarians to new kinds of publicity and communication. This is illustrated by a presentation of the Danish library web site litteratursiden.dk, produced by librarians to inspire readers of fiction among library patrons.

Findings

Theoretical and practical findings by new media research have indicated several new media features concerning the internet and the web. The web is a hypertextual media environment – all web sites are part of a global media environment, a global publicity. Local web communication is already a global communication. The web interface is also a multimedia interface, and it gives the possibility of interactive, dialogic communication. Further web sites are “remediations” of media types and genres from other media. These features must be considered when analysing library web sites, and they must be considered in the education of librarians in the future. The Danish library web site litteratursiden.dk is used to demonstrate how a literary library web site may use the web as a medium, and how new skills are needed and developed. The site gives access to the fiction of library catalogues, but at the same time it is a literary magazine with news, essays and recommendations. The librarians operate in two kinds of space – the library space and the literary public space. The addressee is both the library patron and the common reader. This duplicity may be seen as an expansion of the reader advisory service and may be compared with similar advisory services in reader development programmes.

Practical implications

The world wide web and new media may change the roles of the librarian in public libraries. The library web site is embedded in a general media environment, which may demand new skills of media communication.

Originality/value

The paper aims to focus on the public librarian as a new media producer and communication expert.

Citation

Jørn Nielsen, H. (2005), "New media and new roles of librarianship: Illustrated by a literary website of Danish libraries", New Library World, Vol. 106 No. 11/12, pp. 510-518. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800510634991