America at your door: new uses, new services, new concepts of buildings… a foretaste of our future?

Five years from now, will French libraries have experienced the same changes as their American counterparts? New information and communication technologies are turning the everyday life of libraries upside down, a truth even more evident in the United States whose progress in this area is obvious: homes better equipped, electronic resources more abundant, omnipresence of the Internet… The behaviour and habits of the public change, and the advances at present under way in American libraries affect acquisition policies just as much as services on offer or the design of buildings. Is the heart of the profession being affected by these upheavals? The extent of cultural differences between the two countries is well known, but does the imminent future of French libraries – and librarians – look likely to be so different?
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