Thank you to everyone who participated in this session! Please add your own notes, thoughts, and/or corrections below.

Here are some interesting resources to check out regarding "balancing the new and the old." Feel free to add any other blog postings, articles, etc.

"Do More, Better, for Less." by Shaunessy Everett, Library Journal, September 2006.

"The Transparent Library: Turning 'No' into 'Yes.'" by Michael Casey & Michael Stephens, Library Journal, May 2007.

Change management (people), from Wikipedia

Borrowed Time: How do you build a public library in the age of Google? From Slate.com

Session notes:

• Many new services are really old services with new tools
• How to patrons react to change?
• aCommunity College has a new information commons, but some patrons can't find the books anymore!
• Computers have replaced index/abstracts, tools of access have changed
• The beauty of the library may be that it doesn't give you everything you want
• The purpose is not to give answers but to prompt bigger and better questions
• Technology takes money, time, personnel, and space; need to balance with other services
• Some staff members are resistant to change, new staff tends to have a new way of looking at things
• There is often fear of change; need to be cognizant of what agenda is going on in the mind of those resisting a change; what is their concern?
• Librarian's job is to find the best fit for the patron
• Sometimes there are many reasons for making a change, such as accomodating a disability
• Find a way to show naysayers what is in it for them
• Try to do something for everyone; how do you decide when it is time to discontinue a particular format?
• Are libraries living on borrowed time? (see link to Slate.com slide show above)
• The Library's role is changing. It is a place; the name might change, "learning commons," but it remains a safe place, refuge, where there are people who don't ask anything of you
• In some schools, the library is a detention hall; sometimes teens are not accepted in public libraries; how does this affect college students' opinions of the library?
• Children love libraries, then something happens... what is it?
• Information is available everywhere; libraries add value through service, such as online reference
• It's hard to tell the difference between a fad and a trend; scanning the horizon for what's next
• The best reference librarians make it an experience, not a transaction
• Moving to a "holds" system eliminates the browsing aspect of a library, or moves it online