Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

If you want to get my goat, or, I daresay, the goat of any librarian, make a gratuitous reference to shushing. The finger held to the lips, the aggressive whisper, the frown at a pin’s drop. We don’t do these things, but it’s a stereotype that is endlessly used in article titles and commercials, and it’s annoying.

Still, something struck me as I was recently mulling over what it is that libraries offer in our frazzled, commercialized, surveillant society. I’ve made the claim before that library values, if not actual library practices, could be beneficially applied to the digital platforms we use every day. Caring about privacy, intellectual freedom, the public good and free access to information for all would go a long way toward making our tech corporations more just and socially responsible. We may be making a little progress on that front. 

Recent years have seen a gradual metamorphosis of the traditional library space as print goes out of fashion, the digital age has made global teams a possibility, and changes in working methods take the Librarian into a new physical sphere. But, what does it really mean? And how is it impacting upon the typical library space we have grown to love? Can a library exist without books?