Tim Coates said ” It is the ability to gather, hold, understand and offer books and other works that gives the library and the librarians in it their distinct role.”
He is just plain wrong!It is our ability to morph
In the words of Charles Darwin“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
Over hundreds of years libraries and librarians have had the uncanny ability to diversify and change to meet customers expectations and needs and to adapt and embrace new technologies.
Once we managed clay tablets then chained books we moved on fast to ladies only reading rooms, card catalogues and complex classification schemes. Now our libraries have bright modern interiors, cafes and are alive with technology, ICT classes, children’s rhyme times and youth zones.
Librarians are more and more social media savvy , good with electronic content and gadgets and the seamless integration of local history with technology.
Future libraries 