Last Sunday my husband, eldest son and I went for a walk. I decided not to bring my camera, but my husband did. We went down to the river and had to do some climbing because the path is quite rough. My husband soon got very occupied with his camera, he tried different angles, saw some interesting stones and then there was this bird and so on. My son and I went on for a while, but then we had to stop and wait for him but he did not show up. Then we went to look for him and there he was still pondering how to take the best picture of the waterfall. We turned around again and continued, but much slower this time, but still we had to wait for him. I started to regret I had gone out at all, but then I realized that if we all had brought our cameras we´d had a great time all of us.
This made me think about how some of us have the need to participate, when we want to. I have noticed at the library more people asks for services where they can get what they want by doing most of the ordering themselves. Some sends the links for the books they want to borrow and some want the material sent by email or at least get the message by their mobile or email. The services must offer a kind of interaction, preferably on the internet or at least via some electronic devises. I think this is interesting because it challenges the way of thinking and makes it necessary to create more easy accessible library services for all. This has of course been on the agenda for many years but in a small library you tend to notice these trends a bit later. People are not expecting us to deliver the same services and when they actually discover that we do, they are quite pleased. I don´t think this should be an excuse for not being able to make a good library service, but I have to admit it takes a bit longer to reach the goals because – and I hate to say it – the resources are limited.
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