The library of this century - the question is what kind of the library?

Abstract

Contemporary libraries of the twenty-first century are characterized by a marked fluctuation of roles and functions commonly ascribed to them. Librarians are expected to be capable of anticipating them and addressing them appropriately in order to satisfy the requirements set up by users. This article is an attempt to discuss the most important changes that have hitherto been done and to indicate those areas of the activity of research, academic, public and, to a lesser degree, school libraries in which those changes will be particularly pronounced. Anticipated roles and tasks within the management and access to resources, building up own electronic resources and their processing, library space, embarking on tasks hitherto not regarded as strictly ''library" tasks as well as the most important changes in the author's view such as those to be introduced in user services, in-service trainings, education and propagation of knowledge are discussed in the article. The author believes that the new functions, on par with those already existing, should be subjected to actual users, but also to potential ones, even deeper than before. This should effect in creating the library environment as a ''meeting place", some kind of a social space to perform entirely new functions superimposed onto traditional ones in the library information. The new functions will include performing new cultural, educational, social, artistic and communal tasks carried out with a co-operation with other libraries, scientific, educational and cultural instructions. Additionally, the problem of changes in work force management, so vital in the supposed and anticipated transformation of the library and its functions, is evaluated and discussed.