LIBER 2021 - Keynote Address - Digital Libraries: The Next Frontier by Toma Tasovac

These are the slides from the LIBER 2021 Keynote Address Digital Libraries: The Next Frontier by Toma Tasovac.

The keynote speech was moderated by Julien Roche, LIBER Vice-President, Chair of the LIBER Conference Programme Committee.

Session description:

The classical model of the library was both an archive and a temple. The library was a defense against decay and destruction, an institution that preserved not only a system of values but also certain rituals of using knowledge: the book as a physical object and, consequently, a model of text that is final and unchangeable. But electronic textuality has changed all that. We are not in Kansas anymore, and some rather pesky people among us -- generally referred to as digital humanists -- have developed a craving for digital collections in which a text or an image is not only an object but a service; not a static entity but an interactive method. Can libraries keep up with the instability and fluidity of infinitely enrichable digital objects? And should they?