Photo credit: Daniel Bayer for Aspen Institute  This post has been updated. What will your local public library look like in the future? A digital-age gathering place that’s still a monument to the printed page? Perhaps shed of its physical walls and transformed into a virtual library, accessed by patrons from their homes, businesses or open public spaces? Or...? The sentiment is nearly universal that the public library – open to and serving all strata of a community – is an asset and public treasure to be protected as well as updated as it necessarily transforms for the digital age. In the mountains of Colorado last week, a group of library leaders were joined by thought leaders and decision-makers from government, technology, business, academia and philanthropy to consider and plan for the future of the public library. Assisted by facilitators at the Aspen Institute, participants in the Leadership Roundtable on Library Innovation, part of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries and supported by Knight Foundation, worked over three days on proposals to guide libraries through a difficult march toward future relevance.

Video: Michelle Ha Tucker, Library Innovation by Design. Photo of man studying by Chris Devers on Flickr. “We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts. … In the Internet age, knowledge has moved onto networks. There’s more knowledge than ever, but it’s different. Topics have no boundaries, and nobody agrees on anything.” – David Weinberger “The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas, but in escaping from old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes These two quotes must scare most librarians. Rightly so. They were among the provocations offered as an introduction to a group of experts gathered at the Aspen Institute in Colorado this week to consider the future of libraries. Not only must librarians adapt to an information world that is rocking with seismic upheaval, but as institutions funded by taxpayer dollars, public libraries face the challenge of dealing with internal cultures and bureaucratic systems that make institutional innovation difficult – plus scrutiny from the public that can make library leaders cautious. Monday was Day One (of three) of the Leadership Roundtable on Library Innovation, part of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries and supported by Knight Foundation. A good part of the day was spent examining the situation that libraries find themselves in, identifying opportunities and challenges. The event includes executives of several large metro public libraries, but also thought leaders and decision-makers from government, technology, business, civil society and academia. For the next couple days, roundtable participants have the task of identifying ways that libraries can restructure their work to benefit their communities while finding ways to innovate effectively and continuously. Libraries remain trusted community hubs and repositories of knowledge and information, but in an era where trusted knowledge is being replaced by amorphous information flows, innovation and change is required ahead. Here are some notable suggestions for and criticisms of libraries from roundtable participants, aimed at sparking useful discussion during the remainder of the event. (I will write an overview and report on the group’s recommendations later this week.)