The document discusses the role of public libraries in the future. It argues that libraries provide long-term social value by supporting skills, competencies, and delivering maximum value to users. It also explores how libraries can transition from being reactive to proactive community spaces and knowledge organizations in the digital age through partnerships, looking outward at technological and social trends, and reinventing their role and services.

2. The Land of Informed Bewilderment

3. If Public Libraries Did Not Exist, Would Someone Invent Them?

4. Public policy priorities Long-term social value Sustainable model Skills and competencies

5. Weltanschauung

7. Libraries of the Future Weltanschauung What are the unique and enduring roles of libraries? How, at any given time, do we ensure they deliver maximum value to the user?

9. The Future Public Library: From short term to long term “ We cannot be sure that someone born at the beginning of the 21 st century will have any particular nostalgia for a paper book” Weltanschauung

10. The Future Public Library: From Reactive to Proactive Community space Development agency Library online Weltanschauung

12. Museum = digital library of objects Library = museum of books The Future Public Library: Expectations

13. “ Old men ought to be explorers” Weltanschauung

14. Modelling public knowledge value chains in a networked world Weltanschauung

15. Weltanschauung Public policy Parent institutions Buildings Staff Services Investment decisions Policy/invest. decisions Delivery infrastructure

16. Boundary exchanges Downstream value Institutional convergence? Institutional competition? Weltanschauung

17. Measuring downstream value Lifetime Good Fair Poor Pre-school support School years Level three Skills training and support Knowledge and information mediation and guidance Convivial activity Confidence Creativity Curiosity Community well being, social capital Discovery/understanding Weltanschauung High High, but at risk High, in places Uncertain Batt Value Indicator

18. Learning Never Was What it Used To Be Weltanschauung

20. Learning is a personal need that should last a lifetime Weltanschauung “ War is a continuation of politics by other means ” Carl von Clausewitz Adult informal learning

21. Theory into Practice v1.0 Weltanschauung

22. Learning for Life: the Engine of the 21 st Century LEARNING FOR LIFE Help everyone to discover and understand more about the world everyday Neuroscience Behavioural economics Theories of learning Social trends

25. Weltanschauung Almost as good as a bottle of Scotch whisky

26. If libraries did not exist, would we be able to invent them? Weltanschauung