The reenchantment of the library

Abstract

Libraries have introduced a great many rules and procedures you need to familiarise yourself with, if you want to make use of the services. These rules are needed because of the manner in which libraries have solved the problems related to the explosion of information: the access to information has been rationalised in a one-sided way. The future's library's challenge is to bring its content to live. What matters is not what you search, but rather what you want to create, i.e. the extra value that comes into being as soon as various information sources come together. With the help of information technology it will become possible to browse through information as though you were strolling among bookshelves in a multidimensional fashion. Thus, the connection with man's creativity can be restored: the reenchantment of the library.