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The Library1 Landscape section was the most challenging of the six landscape sections to compile—not surprisingly perhaps, because it is the landscape with which OCLC and its membership are most familiar and it both deserves and will get particular scrutiny with regard to trends. None of us is unaware of the trends outlined below and many, many interesting, thoughtful and scholarly articles have been published on these and other relevant topics.
As you read this section reflect not so much on these trends, which may tell you nothing new (think of them as reminders), but on the gaps or synergies you notice that relate to the other landscapes. An early reader of one of the landscapes remarked “But there’s nothing new here. I know all this stuff already.” And the response was a gentle, “But isn’t that the problem?” If we do see the patterns of our own landscape, what has been done to address the challenges?
And so, familiarity with this landscape may mean it is actually more difficult to recognize the overarching trends—the major patterns threading their way through the fabric—because we are so familiar with each of the trends highlighted, as well as all those not mentioned. It is, perhaps, only the contrast between or the relationships among these trends to other trends identified in the environmental scan that will lead to pattern recognition.
It is worth repeating from the quote at the beginning of this landscape scan: “Our accumulation of and intense focus on our knowledge controls what we believe. And, what we believe controls what we are able to see. What haven’t you noticed lately?”2
This section is structured slightly differently from the other sections. It is divided into two subsections: The Social Landscape and The Technology Landscape. The subsection titles deliberately use the titles from earlier sections that are, in a sense, the larger frameworks of the library environments. The social and technology landscapes within the library landscape cannot exist independently of the larger ones and are—or should be—informed by trends in them.
The Social Landscape focuses on the people, content and issues that make up the Library Landscape.
The Technology Landscape focuses on the hardware, software and infrastructures that make up the Library Landscape.
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