Chapter 9: Conclusion: Issues and Trends

Abstract

Chapter 9 of Library Technology Reports (vol. 50, no. 7),“Social Media Curation,” concludes that social media curation is a legitimate and growing facet of library practice. While interpreted differently in various venues, this collection of curation snapshots demonstrates how libraries are leveraging social media to promote and share resources and facilitate human connections to libraries. Considering all that we have learned, a final view into developing trends and sticky issues of social media curation across libraryland is offered here.

First things first—“curation” is a terrible term. . . . But I firmly believe that the ethos at its core—a drive to find the interesting, meaningful, and relevant amidst the vast maze of overabundant information, creating a framework for what matters in the world and why—is an increasingly valuable form of creative and intellectual labor, a form of authorship that warrants thought.

—Maria Popova

While the first four laws deal with the functions of a library, the Fifth Law tells us about the vital and lasting characteristics of the library as an institution and enjoins the need for a constant adjustment of our outlook in dealing with it. . . . The Fifth Law is: The Library is a growing organism. . . . A growing organism takes in new matter, casts off old matter, changes in size and takes new shapes and forms.

—Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan