Resumen de Filling in spaces: libraries as connecting tissue in a dense society
If nowadays libraries are linked to books, it is likely that in 2029, the increasing digitalization of the information will lead us to libraries without documents. Does this mean that libraries will be void of meaning? Is the role of libraries to conserve documents or to facilitate its use? We are currently witnessing a paradigm shift where we are moving from printed and scarce information to digital and abundant information. In this context, the attention of librarianship can go from information-document to the process of obtaining and using information. We should redefine the library not from a new technological framework, but from a new sociological framework: Which are the needs that libraries should embrace in a world of digital and networked information? The redefinition of the role of libraries is to reduce inequalities, namely, to fill spaces. There are three lines to do so, we can fill libraries with more information, with more processes and new functions, and we can create new uses for the library. No matter whether societies are economic, cultural, identity or any other type, the role of libraries should be to make dense societies, which means societies with less inequality.
