Collections are changing in a network environment. One important direction is the assembly of resources around user needs based on a facilitated access model rather than an acquisition model.
The library does not have a singular network presence. There may be a main website, but the library also syndicates its presence to other venues (e.g. RSS), has unbundled to social sites (e.g. Facebook), and sources activity in the cloud (e.g. LibGuides).
The collection remains central to the library experience. However, as library services evolve beyond the collection so it makes sense for discovery services to represent more of what the library does and can provide - to move from 'full collection discovery' to 'full library discovery.'
A framework of engagement, innovation and rightscaling is used to talk about some of the ways in which the library is changing. This is based on a model developed by John Hagel and John Seely Brown.
There is not a one-to-one relationship between names and people. This means that the relationship between people and their names and identities has become something that is managed in a variety of places. OCLC Research has several projects in this area.
Library definitions often emphasize access to or management of information. However, the library has a much stronger generative role in the cycle of knowledge creation.
Our reading experience is fragmented across print and digital in increasingly varied ways, which means that we have to make more choices in how we acquire books.