Putting Crises behind Us: A New Opportunity for Libraries

Whether libraries are burned down or treasured, everyday culture is always the driving force behind such acts. It is easy to see symbols of a shared cultural environment in libraries; hence they can be seen as either institutional and exclusive, or as a symbol of diversity and democracy. Such duality is at the core of the identity of libraries, and it is exacerbated by today’s economic, technological, and political contexts. Digital culture is pushing libraries toward multimediation, which implies the adoption of new multimedia tools, and the rethinking of the notion of mediation and our practice in libraries using those tools. Crises also provide a historic political opportunity for all libraries and particularly French médiathèques, but this calls for an ambitious response, beyond those discussed within the context of the future of libraries as great, good places. Such a response could consist in providing support to local individuals in a more global and assertive fashion using our existing social experience to help put the crises behind us. We can build coordinated action in partnership with related institutions in a way that better integrates users on the social and cultural levels, thus fostering a strong feeling of collective usefulness.