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The purpose of this paper is to propose that to survive and thrive the library needs to aim for a more active role in people’s lives and in the communities that surround them. Public libraries are places of learning. They strive to enrich, empower and inspire people to support their full participation in society. But our fast-changing society (Pink, 2005) requires people to develop new competencies, such as creativity, empathy, collaboration and big-picture thinking. However, current processes of the public library are still primarily aimed at providing and improving access to information produced by others. Although of great importance, these processes are fundamentally passive and do not actively stimulate people to share knowledge and insights or to engage in conversations. It explores how this can be done and what effect this change might have on library space based on the ideas and perspective of the Dutch Ministry of Imagination.

The Ministry, a cooperation between architect Jan David Hanrath and librarians Rob Bruijnzeels and Joyce Sternheim, conducts research and realizes new types of libraries and library architecture. To turn the public library into a more dynamic and active social setting, the Ministry has developed a new work process supported by matching criteria for the layout of library space.

The new concept has been brought into practice in the Chocolate Factory in Gouda, The Netherlands, which since then has become a permanent testing ground for new library work.

This paper is a thought piece that will be of interest not only to those concerned with public libraries, but also to everyone who is searching for ways to turn the library into a learning environment in which a continuous process of knowledge creation takes place, through interaction with the collection, but – most importantly – through interaction between people.

This study aims to investigate how the local residents viewed a new public library project in Macao through the analysis of newspaper articles published in 2014–2019 and how these views have changed the decision-makers in selecting a different site for the new library.

Content analysis was used to analyze public views. 569 newspaper articles on the new library project published in local major newspapers from January 2014 to August 2019 were coded and analyzed. Percentage agreement for the two coders and Cohen's Kappa were used to calculate the inter-rater reliability.

The top 5 factors discussed in the newspaper articles were the general decision-making process (38.65%), location (18.20%), selection of the Old Court Building as the new library site (15.07%), budget (13.5%) and new library services (6.85%). The local residents tended to raise questions on the high cost, the appropriateness of the selected library site, the preservation of the local heritage buildings, and the role that the government should play in this project.

This study only collected and analyzed the data from the articles published in the major newspapers in Macao. Other types of media from sources such as Facebook were not included in this study. Articles containing similar information but from different newspapers were all counted as individual entries for data collection. The voices/options were not divided by groups. For further analysis, the articles could be separated by voices from politicians, librarians and other special interest groups. The chosen categories in this study were based on Voyant Tools and the authors' interpretation/focus of the research question. The categories could be subdivided for further study. For example, the overall support of the project could be broken into full support, support with some minor reservations, support with major reservations, etc. And some articles currently in the neutral category with some degrees of support might fit into one of the above new sub-categories.

The case carries new references for any communities embarking on similar projects.

Examines the challenge of defining future library service requirements. Describes the processes and models being used by an American university to analyse user group needs prior to the planning of a new library building.

Today's online catalogs typically access machine‐readable records for books, journal titles, and audio‐visual materials, and indicate their circulation status. In the future, the database of these traditional records may be dwarfed by additional databases that will become part of the future electronic library. A few libraries are already experimenting with the addition of other text files to their catalogs. Broad‐band telecommunications networks and supporting technologies are being developed rapidly and will significantly affect the evolution of online catalogs. Growing applications of online catalogs, and network access to them, will require more sophisticated and powerful processing. Six prominent consultants—Joseph Becker, Gayla Kraetsch Hartsough, Raymond DeBuse, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Rick Richmond, and Wilson Stahl—address these and related issues.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight some traditional functions found in academic libraries and apply various business models as an aid to developing an entrepreneurial culture. Due to a combination of environmental pressures, universities are refining their strategic mission to identify “what they do well” or “where they want to be”. Programs that align with the strategic mission of the university get funded, while other less productive, lower impact programs and services are neglected or eliminated. This is essentially a process based on business or financial decisions.

In an attempt to cope with these changes, academic library administrators are assessing library services to insure that they are aligned with their university’s strategic mission.

To successfully develop and sustain this alignment, academic libraries must become “entrepreneurial organizations” where strategic decisions are based on business models, rather than tradition, or more specifically “the way we have always done things”. As this results-oriented, strategic thinking culture evolves, the actual brick and mortar library will also evolve to become a technology-based information service center that facilitates campus-wide creative activities.

This perspective piece will highlight some traditional functions found in academic libraries and apply various business models, including the Schumpeterian model of creative destruction, as an aid to developing the entrepreneurial culture that will be necessary if the academic library is to stay viable and relevant in the twenty-first century.

SINCE the year 1940, there have appeared two major reports on the Public Library system in Great Britain. The first, “The public library system of Great Britain: a report on its present condition, with proposals for post‐war re‐organisation” by Lionel R. McColvin, appeared in 1942. It suggested sweeping changes in the organisation of the public library system, more radical and far‐reaching than those embodied in the recent recommendations of the Library Association for local government reform. On library co‐operation, the report was equally radical, though certain similarities with the recommendations of the second report are apparent.

An effective library management system is essential to the operation of services but the procurement of a system is an infrequent activity with little opportunity for librarians to build on or consolidate their experience. The common activity of specifying the operational requirements of a system can consequently be problematic. The procurement process is also difficult for potential system suppliers who must respond to specifications (or RfPs) which are very variable in terms of content, format and quality. A survey of UK library system suppliers was undertaken in January 2000 as part of the UK LIC‐funded HARMONISE Project to determine their views on the quality and usefulness of the specification in the procurement process. The suppliers indicated a number of problems inherent in specifications produced by libraries, such as a lack of clarity, poor structure, variable in technical understanding and with too great a focus on basic functionality which has been tried and tested. A model specification of system requirements for libraries is recommended.

The developments in the use of computer systems in libraries from 1966 to date have been great. This report, written to coincide with the twenty‐first anniversary of the publication of Program, looks at some of these developments, in Britain, in North America, and in other countries. It traces the history of library automation from the early experimental systems through to the co‐operative systems, the locally developed systems, the mini‐ and microcomputer‐based and stand‐alone integrated systems that are available today.

In this paper, ten standard business principles are considered in relation to library cataloging. These principles are intended to suggest methods that may decrease the time necessary for processing new library materials without adversely affecting access to the materials. This purely rational paradigm offers ideas about how to modify the cataloging philosophy and workflow, to reduce costs and improve patron service. By applying these basic principles, cataloging departments can accomplish traditional tasks more efficiently. Furthermore, the adoption of this approach will help to ensure the department's perceived value and relevance by freeing catalogers to focus more fully on the description and access of electronic resources.

A library management system is a significant investment for libraries, but the procurement of a system is an infrequent activity with little opportunity for librarians to build on their experience. The procurement process is also difficult for potential system suppliers who must respond to specifications which are variable in content, format and quality. The HARMONISE project aimed to determine the feasibility of developing a model system specification which could be used to assist libraries in the procurement of library management systems. Specifications collected from libraries which had recently acquired a library management system were analysed. The results demonstrate that the functional requirements specified for each of the core modules had strong similarities both within and across library sectors. A survey of UK system suppliers was also undertaken to determine their views on the specification as a procurement tool. Suppliers expressed frustration with the tendency for specifications to be dominated by lists of functional requirements which were present in all library management systems on the market today. In conclusion, a model specification incorporating basic functions, which can be expected in all library management systems, should be developed.