The Digital Public Library for Flanders A strategic look into the future Jan Braeckman Based on consultancy by ONE Agency Vlaams Centrum voor Openbare Bibliotheken Flemish Agency for Public Libraries
The Library as gatekeeper Stands for reliable information and collections, quality selection and descriptions Related to the local community
The Library as curator Is an objective and qualitative store window of information, media, and services Help people to discover things they like, and didn’t know New things, and things out of the long tail It’s: the libraries’ choice
The Library as guide Learning how to fish the ocean of information Learning how to search, find, interpret, and share information and knowledge
The Library as participant The library and its staff are full blown participants of the Web 2.0 conversations, relying on their specific expertise to of value to the others On the same level as other participants
Good morning/afternoon My name is Jan Braeckman, I’m director of the Flemish Agency for Public Libraries. I’m very glad ALA accepted my presentation. I hope we will be able to exchange some ideas and opinions during this session. My presentation is about the strategy we developed in Flanders, to adapt public library work to the new context in which public libraries are working. And the focus of my story is on the analysis of this new context.