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To comment, please examine the following list. How would further exploration of these issues improve library and museum services in the United States? Which issues are of the greatest importance? Should other issues be added to the list?

A. How do changing community expectations impact library and museum services? How can libraries and museums respond to these expectations?
Representative issues:
• Altered patterns of information-seeking and learning
• Changing educational patterns
• Evolving roles of libraries and museums
• Expectations for multi-institution and cross-disciplinary collaboration
• Competition from alternative venues

B. How do digital technology and the Web impact library and museum services? How can libraries and museums respond to challenges and benefit the public?
Representative issues:
• User expectations for seamless access to resources across organizational boundaries
• Requirements for building and maintaining technology systems, products, and services
• Desirability of integrating technology into management functions and services
• Changing staff skills and knowledge requirements
• Budget implications
• Need to accommodate visitor/user skills and equipment needs (e.g., technical support, on-site equipment access, off-site equipment and connectivity)

C. What are the impacts of growing community diversity on library and museum service? How can museums and libraries respond to them?
Representative issues:
• Changing demography of local, regional, and national audiences
• Altered educational norms
• Institutional need to reflect visitor/user diversity
• Need to address language and cultural diversity
• Expanding definitions of access and barriers (e.g. Americans with Disabilities Act, limited English proficiency)

D. How do changes in requirements for institutional infrastructure that have occurred or are emerging impact library and museum service? How can museums and libraries respond to them?
Representative issues:
• Requirements for creation, maintenance, management, and accessibility of learning resources
• Leadership and professional development, evolving requirements for staff skills
• Development and fund-raising challenges
• Need to sustain public safety and security in parallel with public confidentiality and privacy
• Need to provide broad access to resources in parallel with protection of intellectual property rights

E. What are the challenges of developing and communicating a public value role for libraries and museums? How can museums and libraries respond to them?
Representative issues:
• Developing a strategy to be part of the community fabric to address unmet needs
• Need to develop practical results-oriented evaluation tools and capacities
• Expectations for outcomes- and impact-based reporting
• Need to persuade policy-makers and other decision-makers of the competitive priority of museum/library services
• Need to attract nonusers and infrequent users; need to expand audiences

F. What are the perceptions of educators, business leaders, community leaders, and public policy-makers of the impact of library and museum service in creating an educated and informed citizenry?
Representative issues:
• Contribution to formal education
• Contribution to civic engagement
• Contribution to lifelong learning
• Contribution to quality of community life
• Contribution to family life

Comments should be received by September 20, 2004, and addressed to Karen Motylewski, Research Officer, Office of Research and Technology, Institute of Museum and Library Services, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506, e-mail: kmotylewski@imls.gov.

Background

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is charged with promoting the improvement of library and museum services for the benefit of the public. Through grant-making and leadership activities, IMLS seeks to ensure that libraries and museums are able to play an active role in cultivating an educated and engaged citizenry. IMLS builds the capacity of libraries and museums by encouraging the highest standards in management, public service, and education; leadership in the use of technology; strategic planning for results; and partnerships to create new networks that support lifelong learning and the effective management of assets.

According to its strategic plan, IMLS is dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums service their communities. IMLS believes that libraries and museums are key resources for education in the United States and promotes the vision of a learning society in which learning is seen as a community-wide responsibility supported by both formal and informal educational entities.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is an independent federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities. The Institute fosters leadership, innovation, and a lifetime of learning by supporting the nation's 15,000 museums and 122,000 libraries. The Institute also encourages partnerships to expand the educational benefit of libraries and museums. To learn more about the Institute, please log onto http://www.imls.gov