The days of reading books from the public library may be numbered, with the advent of digital technology.
But the chairwoman of the International Federation of Library Associations' metropolitan libraries section, Christine Mackenzie, showed about 600 people at the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa conference in Dunedin yesterday how libraries around the world were reinventing themselves and redefining their roles to ensure their survival in the digital age.
In her keynote speech, "Public libraries after the iPad", she described the invention of the iPad as the tipping point - a change some described as being as profound as the invention of the printing press - and questioned what the future of public libraries would be when people could carry all the books they wanted or needed on a small electronic tablet.
Ms Mackenzie said libraries had many special qualities.
They had vast collections of cultural, recreational, educational and entertaining material.
They were serene places where people could study and focus, and the heart of the community where children heard stories and adults gathered for educational programmes.
But libraries worldwide were beginning to redefine themselves by putting catalogues and books online, having book vending machines similar to food vending machines, automating libraries so people could access them with cards and pin numbers 24/7 and even holding health clinics where people could be screened for cancer.
She said the future of libraries in the digital age was uncertain.
Librarians needed to decide what they wanted their future to be.
For libraries to survive, she believed the way forward was to get mobile, get social, get active and find new partners.
"We have to give this new digital world a shot.
"Fortune favours the prepared."
