Friday Video: Grand Challenges of Librarianship

R David Lankes, Keynote Swedish Library Association’s Annual Conference 2011, Visby, Sweden. Abstract: Instead of focusing on the future of our communities we all too often seem to chase them through technology hoping to find new relevance for our collections and buildings. In such a world every new tool is a potential threat, any perceived encroachment into documents or services an enemy to be rationalized and dismissed. This must stop. We must first identify Grand Challenges facing our communities and then evaluate our mission in light of these challenges. Only then can we refine, adapt, and create tools to improve society.