The future of national libraries

National libraries are the institutions responsible for the conservation and transmission of the culture manifestations that countries have generated throughout their history. Their evolution has accompanied the changes in different media for developing people’s capacity for creation and their history is comparable to the development of the countries where they were founded. It is therefore clear that the strongest national libraries are those from countries with a long history regarding the concept of state and support for cultural creation.

Although the above may seem obvious, this will continue to determine the keys to the national libraries of the future. It is sufficient to know, albeit superficially, which milestones have been definitive in their evolution to give us an idea of the factors that are already marking the present, and therefore the future, of national libraries.

The rationale of national libraries is based on the existence of legal deposit legislation. The development of the publishing industry and the generation of different types of media have determined the need for national libraries to adapt to the conservation requirements of the different collections and the service demanded by their users. One cannot talk about creation and dissemination of knowledge without an awareness of the foundations and trends of an industry as complex as publishing. The evolution of the legal deposit legislation is proof of this. The adaptation of this norm to the evolution of the publishing and cultural industries has enabled national libraries to guarantee the conservation and transmission of culture for hundreds of years.

This issue is particularly complex and, in view of the rapid changes that are taking place in different cultural areas, a great deal of uncertainty exists. The instruments used for new creations are no longer traditional media. Many new works are freely created and disseminated and often these are not controlled by the publishing industry. In this rapid evolution of the media, another concept has arisen that is very important and conditioned by the new types of creativity. What is nowadays considered culture and therefore worthy of being stored in national libraries? New cultural events appear every day: new forms of literary, musical or artistic works, new ways of generating scientific knowledge that must be preserved. In addition, it should not be forgotten that national libraries are constantly focused on the future and that the part of this creativity not controlled by the publishing industry could have more value and cultural significance than much of the material that is published by traditional means in the different types of media.

Some national libraries have begun adapting legal deposit legislation to the current environment and the laws reflect the obligation to preserve not only what is considered more traditional in national library collections but also e-books and e-journals, as well as the contents of websites corresponding to the domain names of their countries. This is ambitious and necessary but not sufficient. In many cases in this globalised world, where multidisciplinary teams of people work in remote places, internet domains are not indicative of a country’s cultural expression. Knowing the environment and the type of cultural expression of a country and adapting legal deposit legislation to its reality in a global, digital, changing and uncertain environment is the first challenge that national libraries must face. It is a complex challenge that must be resolved in the long term, given that the content generated today may be fleeting and the evolution of new forms of creativity is unstoppable.

This reality poses another great challenge for national libraries: the preservation of digital content. When we refer to digital content, we must take into account both the digitisation of our own collections and the conservation of born-digital copies and internet content. All of these gateways generate a huge amount of digital information that is growing exponentially and demands an enormous amount of economic and knowledge resources. They also oblige national libraries to be involved in continuous development projects, conditioned both by budget availability and by the skills and profiles of the different professionals working there. This large amount of public data and content marks both the evolution of the services and the possibility of using them for purposes other than those traditional for national libraries, but which can be extremely beneficial as resources for teaching and lifelong learning.

In fact, fewer and fewer people use reading rooms where physical copies are consulted, while the use of digital services is growing unchecked. In turn, traditional library services, and not only national libraries but all kinds of libraries, are subject to new demands that require continuous innovation and improvement.

We still maintain that the invention of the printing press was a revolution. It allowed many people access to printed text and therefore to knowledge of previous ideas. This was not possible before and has been the basis of social evolution. The press, however, evolved very slowly and libraries had time to adapt to the new knowledge media. Today little time is available, and the progress of this society that thinks, creates, learns and relates in a different way is not only relentless, but is picking up speed.

Throughout their history, national libraries have continued to fulfil their mission because they have been able to adapt to changes in terms of publishing and social demand at any given time. Serving society and guaranteeing the conservation and transmission of the creativity and knowledge that each country is capable of generating has been, and must continue to be, the obligation of national libraries. However, at present the response to this challenge must be carefully planned so that it meets the needs and current demands of society. Nowadays, the great challenge is for national libraries to be able to adapt quickly and intelligently to the environment and to fulfil the same mission that has been entrusted to them for hundreds of years. To do this, however, they cannot be alone or develop their own strategy in isolation. The challenge is so great that collaboration with the different stakeholders involved is essential. Just as essential is a push for the development of ambitious public policies by governments from different countries that must be aware of the strategy of their mission, as well as of the importance of the collections they house and the value they represent. It is a value that must be reverted to citizens in the form of a benefit and a mission that transcends the conservation and transmission of creativity and knowledge in different countries to guarantee the preservation of the key to social evolution.