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The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the future of academic libraries in the era of new user needs, new skills for staff and services offered. The literature shows the evolution of new technologies and the implications they have on the staff, library services and new user needs. The discussions in this paper are surrounded by conceptualization of what the library products and services will be in future academic libraries. It also looks at future studies that explore opportunities for librarians to advance their professional role.

This is a literature-based conceptual paper that draws on a wide range of literature that hypothetically looks at the future roles of professional librarians, the collection, services and the evolution of technology on the new user needs.

The library today will give the basis for the future librarian’s role, the emerging user needs and impact of service delivery. Technological advances have also affected the establishment of library systems and services offered. The emerging future roles will generally depend on how advanced the libraries are in the region or country including Kenya.

This paper adds a flexible approach to the skills, services as a role of future librarians.

The purpose of this paper is to involve readers in an exercise in conceptualizing the library workplace of the future and how to prepare librarians to be successful in these future scenarios.

This paper introduces a visualization exercise that invites readers to contemplate the likelihood and desirability of five scenarios for libraries of the future. Readers are also invited to create a new scenario. Readers then can reflect on the skills and aptitudes librarians would need to have or acquire in order to succeed in one of the scenarios. The method involves visualization, reflection, and self-assessment.

The authors have tested this exercise in in-service training with public, academic, and special librarians as well as with students in graduate library and information science courses. The end result is deep conversation, engagement, and sharing.

The authors have observations on the effectiveness of this future exercise with students and practicing librarians but did not structure its use as a research project. In years of attending conferences and delivering over 600 conference presentations, the authors have yet to observe a similar future exercise being employed.

This exercise promotes reflection and discussion. It enables librarians to consider these scenarios on their own or in groups of varying sizes. It has application in understanding the complexity of futurism and how it might impact their future lives. And it emphases that individual librarians have some degree of independence in how they respond to change and, ultimately, a future much different from the present.

Libraries are social institutions and their services reflect and respond to changes in society. Recent changes in governance around the world, warfare, the refugee crisis, and episodes of violence have contributed to tension. These are the times when librarians are called on more than ever to respond. Considering possible and improbable futures and one’s response to those futures are helpful in preparing one’s professional response in these difficult times.

This paper introduces an original model for discussing many possible futures for libraries and for librarians to consider their roles in those futures.

The purpose of this paper is to review librarianship in different eras and throw light on its foreseeable future, as seen through the eyes of new librarians in Pakistan.

The paper is based on a literature search, website visits, personal communication with related experts and interviews of future librarians. A purposive sample of 20 students of the final semester from the Department of Library and Information Science, University of the Punjab was chosen.

The electronic environment of the 21st century will demand a range of skills from librarians. Technology alone cannot help bring about the required changes. Attitudes, practices and policies need to change if libraries are to truly benefit themselves and their community of users by the application of new technologies.

The research is mostly based on a small sample of future librarians” perception and researcher”s perception acquired through literature review and personal communication with experts.

The paper can be helpful for both working and future library professionals in planning their professional future tracks.

The paper provides an overview of librarianship in different eras and provides a thorough understanding of the foreseeable future as seen through the eyes of newly qualified Pakistani librarians.

Vision 2008, a gathering of technology and library experts, was an unprecedented industry think‐tank developed by 3M Library Systems as a means by which the future of our libraries could be projected. Held in October 1998, it was the first of many fora 3M plans to host as it moves toward the year 2008. Under the direction of Northeast Consulting Resources, Inc and its Future Mapping® process, participants worked together to map out a best scenario for the libraries of the future. The information exchanged at Vision 2008 will help 3M continue to develop innovations to assist libraries in meeting their goals for the future.

This paper aims to determine if the digital humanities technique of topic modeling would reveal interesting patterns in a corpus of library-themed literature focused on the future of libraries and pioneer a collaboration model in librarian-led digital humanities projects. By developing the project, librarians learned how to better support digital humanities by actually doing digital humanities, as well as gaining insight on the variety of approaches taken by researchers and commenters to the idea of the future of libraries.

The researchers collected a corpus of over 150 texts (articles, blog posts, book chapters, websites, etc.) that all addressed the future of the library. They ran several instances of latent Dirichlet allocation style topic modeling on the corpus using the programming language R. Once they produced a run in which the topics were cohesive and discrete, they produced word-clouds of the words associated with each topic, visualized topics through time and examined in detail the top five documents associated with each topic.

The research project provided an effective way for librarians to gain practical experience in digital humanities and develop a greater understanding of collaborative workflows in digital humanities. By examining a corpus of library-themed literature, the researchers gained new insight into how the profession grapples with the idea of the future and an appreciation for topic modeling as a form of literature review.

Topic modeling a future-themed corpus of library literature is a unique research project and provides a way to support collaboration between library faculty and researchers from outside the library.

Innovation in information and communication technologies, combined with change in social and cultural attitudes, is raising questions about the future for libraries and librarians. This article seeks to examine alternative futures that were developed at a workshop organized by Brisbane City Council in June 2006.

Through the discussion of provocative discussion points, four possible futures emerged – “the lean, information machine”, “co‐location for community capacity building”, “knowledge navigator”, and “dinosaurs of the digital knowledge era”.

The library is undergoing a foundational shift in services, design and purpose. To survive and thrive in the future libraries will have to adapt to these changing conditions.

The article identifies some key strategic questions for libraries, particularly those provided by municipal authorities. These strategic questions remain unanswered but this article contributes to the debate.

Leadership is always important but is especially important at times of rapid and even fundamental change. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and evidence the changes and decisions facing librarians in our world against the backdrop of international disrupted business models for libraries. The traditional mode of operation for libraries is changing dramatically in order to stay relevant and connected to our library users. This paper will aim to explore future leadership styles which will be required for special librarians. This will be set in the context of the NextGen Leadership program which this author established and conducted across Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The paper will also seek to draw on the author's experiences seeking new scenario futures for special libraries in Australia.

This paper will explore future leadership styles which will be required for special librarians. This will be set in the context of the NextGen Leadership program which this author established and conducted across Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. It will also draw on the author's experiences seeking new scenario futures for special libraries in Australia.

The evaluation of the Next Gen Leadership program is reviewed in this paper.

The implications are that librarians need programs such as Next Gen in order to be able to test new ways of adopting management behaviours. These new ways of operating can be tested through programs such as Next Gen which operate over a lengthy period of time.

It is crucial that existing managers of academic libraries establish these leadership programs into the future as a means of ensuring good succession planning.

This is a genuinely original program spanning three countries/cities; Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The opportunity for participants in this course to meet, inter-mingle and network into the future with similar colleagues is unique. The opportunities to test new modes of management in such a course, remote from the work environment, are of value to the management styles of each individual into the future.

The purpose of this paper is to outline strategies and approaches in the workforce plan to address skill shortages in the university of Melbourne library to ensure that staff have the appropriate skills for the future.

The objectives were achieved by developing a workforce plan to identify skills gaps, and then to work with training providers to develop a training plan. There was collaboration with two TAFE colleges to deliver accredited courses to staff to develop the skills required, ensuring key competencies were achieved and the staff received accreditation for their learning

The workforce plan showed an aging workforce but also skill shortages across the library. If the library was to be able to deliver services to meet the needs of future students then it needed to develop training programs to enable staff to develop the appropriate skill sets required to meet the needs of the library in the future. A brief survey of participants of the course discovered staff found the course very useful, although not all staff were able to utilize their new skills as effectively as they might in their current roles. This showed a need to review and re‐write position descriptions for staff.

The outcomes and implications for the future are to ensure there is: an ongoing staff development and training program in place for staff to enable them to continually update their skills as required to meet the needs of the library; that staff have opportunities to utilize the new skills they have acquired to improve and deliver library services; and that staff have the appropriate time to learn and develop themselves

The paper shows that some of the key competencies required by staff are not always learnt in the workplace, or in universities, but can be delivered by vocational training providers such as a TAFE college. The idea of working with TAFE teachers to develop and adapt a training program is quite a different approach to solving this skill gap problem.

Visions of user‐centered approaches to digital library futures are uncertain. One can best understand what those futures portent by briefly exploring one's roots and traditions and concepts of service. Much of the future will be driven by technological change, but it will be moderated by the sense of service and purpose brought to the digital library by the people who use it and by the people who work in and through it. The digital library of the future will be impacted by several factors, one of which is the newly digital nature or format for information. Another is the redefinition of the book in at least some cases from a static to a fluid medium. The seeming inability to archive fluid media has changed libraries. Digital libraries are now distributed constructs of the mind rather than physical buildings with paper content. All of this, in turn, has led to new means and mechanisms for the management, classification, distribution, identification, retrieval, and storage of information in ways heretofore unimaginable. In the medium to long term, new means as yet not imagined will be developed to meet our information needs to further redefine digital libraries.

The aim of this article is to review the future of digital library development over the next three to five years. The article is written from a UK viewpoint, and with special reference to higher and further education. Unattributed quotations in the text of this article are taken directly from respondents to the survey or contributors to the Blue Skies event. The article aims to build on two previous articles in Interlending & Document Supply.

The research was undertaken for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) as part of a route‐mapping exercise relating to digital library resources and services in higher and further education (referred to jointly as tertiary education (TE)). The route map was formulated on the basis of: a survey, using the “Delphi” approach, of higher and further education libraries in the UK; a major “blue skies” event held in May 2005 at the University of Essex and attended by senior stakeholders from the academic library community; iteration with JISC committees and officers.

The key aspects of current and future environments are analysed and a possible future state‐of‐the‐art in library provision given. A number of areas are considered: key strategic drivers; scholarly communication: the need for quality assurance; users and their requirements; systems and services; “the library” and its future in an e‐world; economics; technology and the likely impact of the latest technological developments and fashions.

The Routemap will be used to help JISC and the UK TE library community to plan the next three to five years of development in the field of digital libraries.

This article provides a summary of both digital library work to date and the views of key stakeholders in the field; it presents a coherent vision of a future state‐of‐the‐art in the field and a practical set of steps as to how this can be achieved.