Planning our future libraries: blueprints for 2025

For Immediate Release
Tue, 11/19/2013

Contact:

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

ALA Publishing

American Library Association

312-280-5052

rchristopher@ala.org

CHICAGO — In an information environment where the only constant is change, many wonder where libraries are headed. “Planning Our Future Libraries: Blueprints for 2025,” published by ALA Editions, envisions the future of libraries by bringing together library leaders with some of the brightest new minds in the profession. Editors Kim Leeder and Eric Frierson, alongside Brett Bonfield, John Chrastka, Lesley Farmer, Dave Harmeyer, Megan Hodge, Ben Malczewski, Krisellen Maloney and Hugh Rundle, draw from their personal experiences, bringing their barrier-breaking perspectives to the task of reinventing the library in all its forms. From redesigning library services for the evolving needs of users, to functioning as a meaningful space in a digital age, implementing new infrastructure and imagining the international future of school libraries, the contributors ask and answer questions such as:

  • How do lessons from the past point the way forward?
  • What should libraries look like in the future?
  • Which safeguards will protect intellectual freedom, such as equitable access to information and anti-censorship policies, now and in years to come?
  • How can we overcome obstacles such as feasibility challenges, costs and competing interests to realize the library of the future?

Leeder is director of library services at the College of Western Idaho and a cofounder of In the Library with the Lead Pipe. She has worked in reference, instruction and administration at several academic and public libraries. She has been recognized as an ALA Emerging Leader (2008) and a Library Journal Mover & Shaker (2011). 

Frierson is a discovery services engineer at EBSCO Publishing. He is formerly the head of library systems at St. Edward’s University library, a reference and instruction librarian at the University of Texas at Arlington and an instructional technology librarian at the University of Michigan. His interest in library leadership stems from participation in Texas Library Association’s TALL Texans program and the American Library Association’s Emerging Leaders program.

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5418 or editionsmarketing@ala.org.