20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

434 Cristina PopescuLibraries are an important component of academic life as they supportacademic research by purchasing new materials and providing competentservices. That is why, in order to keep up with contemporary society,libraries have taken over last minute technologies and have increased anddiversified their collections to face the information boom of our time. Buthow can libraries preserve their traditional functions in their attempt tomeet contemporary information challenges?Numerous analysts think that the functions of libraries undergonowadays a period of change and adjustment to new realities as they areinstitutions deeply involved into the process of creating and disseminatinginformation and education.Libraries are adapting to the Internet era and it is quite likely that inthe near future libraries would be very different from our today institutions.With exploitation of the Internet potential there will be changes not only asfar as information support is concerned but also at the level of all libraryfunctions.There are four main traditional functions of libraries: custodian,educational, aesthetical and informational. Analysts say that all fourfunctions will be preserved in virtual libraries which will provide analternative to traditional libraries, though having a different status.The custodian functionIn modern libraries, the custodian function will be enriched by thepossibility to archive almost unlimited information and place it at consumers’disposal. A virtual library may include all the books converted to digitalformat and searched materials can be found any time, without appointmentsand waiting lists. Nevertheless, an important change should be mentioned:while procedures of protecting, preserving and restoring books have beenextensively researched, the methods of protecting digital informationsupport are being studied only now. The digital book management in virtuallibraries and also on the Internet is still an embryonal science and programsof digital information management are still being tested.However, experts have reached consensus 1 . To answer the needs ofresearchers and students, it is important that libraries should continueto facilitate access to printed information. Therefore, libraries as realspaces should continue to exist and be run by informed and well-trainedprofessionals. At the same time, we cannot neglect the fact that digital1The Changing role of the librarian – a virtual library and a real archive? [online],[Accessed: 6 th August 2009]. Available on the Internet at the address: http://bibliotheek.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/root/UB/2001/changingrole/