EDITOR'S NOTES
Ready or Not, the Future Is Now
by Dick Kaser
The theme of this issue—set a year ago—is Future-Ready Libraries. But that was then, and being future-ready has taken on a whole new meaning these last few months, as most libraries and many librarians discovered they were not ready for this future.
As previously used (mostly in educational circles), the term “future-ready” was about making sure that students were prepared properly for their digital, lifelong, independent learning. In this issue, authors Susan Bannwart and Jenny Minich describe their efforts to lend STEM kits to kids, noting only incidentally that it could also benefit the homeschooled. Little did they know when they submitted this article in early March, how future-ready the concept itself was, since it’s a perfect example of what public and school libraries can do to help those currently forced to learn from home.
Neil Dixon’s article on state-of-the-art and future prospects for etextbooks also rings true and comes at a serendipitous moment, since digital educational resources have become even more important in this new age.
None of us were well-prepared for a future that suddenly thrust us into an entirely digital environment, when our employers sent us home this spring. Sharon Whitfield needed to use the technology her library already had in place (LibAnswers) to help her manage committee work from afar without stressing out.
Faced with a similar situation, law librarians and new mothers Geraldine Kalim and Rachel Evans were able to leverage a set of tools they already knew and loved to facilitate the work they now needed to do from home, while also caring for their children. They not only share their tips for leveraging freely available apps that can help you cope, but they give you a set of mantras to refer to while you do it.
Finally, Kaci Resau describes what she did to shift her live, in-person usability testing to a remote paradigm.
Take courage from these accounts, and hang in there.
Dick Kaser, Executive Editor
kaser@infotoday.com
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