The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships

Libraries, museums, and the ways patrons use them have drastically changed in the past decades. Digitization projects, infotainment, and the Internet are redefining the library's and the museum's roles in the community. What are the implications for the future of these institutions? The authors examine, and set out an exciting vision of, a new library-museum hybrid. The juxtaposition of library collections and museum artefacts, they assert, has the potential to create authentic, interactive experiences, and can help establish a distinct, meaningful, and sustainable role for libraries. In the authors' words, libraries can then "reassert themselves as places devoted to contemplation, wonder, knowledge acquisition, and critical inquiry". Commercialization, edutainment, and the library as a learning community are just some of the fascinating topics addressed as the authors explore the future's terrain, and how libraries might situate themselves upon it.