The present and the future of academic libraries in the perception and opinions of its leaders : a brief international overview

This synthetic overview starts with a recent book: Conversations with Leading Academic and Research Library Directors: International Perspectives on Library Management, eds. Patrick Lo et al. (Cambridge, MA; Kidlington, UK: Chandos Publishing, 2019). The book collects thirty interviews with leaders of libraries belonging to institutions of high prestige in the international field. Important informative and narrative elements emerge from the conversations. Specifically, they concern the profiles of respondents, the challenges faced, the changes taking place (change management, digital innovation, new services, new ways of relating to researchers and students). In its second part, the article compares the results of this research project to other similar studies of the same period. The final part presents a few words about the future perspectives of academic libraries in the world. [Publisher's text]