---
title: "Libraries and the new information ecosystem"
description: "The world that libraries and other organizations face can be seen as a new information ecosystem to which they can adapt."
date: "2009-01-16"
authors:
  - name: "Lee Rainie"
    job_title: "Former Director, Internet and Technology Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/lee-rainie/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2009/01/16/libraries-and-the-new-information-ecosystem/"
categories:
  - "Emerging Technology"
  - "Libraries"
  - "Online Search"
  - "Platforms & Services"
tags:
  - "Libraries"
  - "New Media Ecology"
---

# Libraries and the new information ecosystem

The nice folks at the [HELIN Library Consortium](http://library.uri.edu/) in Rhode Island allowed me to help them celebrate their 25th anniversary as an edge-thinking group.

It was fun to hear [Marshall Breeding](http://lib1a.library.vanderbilt.edu/breeding) from Vanderbilt University for the first time. If you want to know where library information systems are heading, Marshall is one of the top analysts and trend watchers.

It's always an honor and treat to hear what wise [David Weinberger](http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/) is thinking. He gave a typically sharp and hilarious talk about why knowledge is always contested, so a better way to look at information is to focus on whether it moves people towards "understanding."

The slides from my talk about how libraries can adapt to the new information ecosystem are [here](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/PPF/r/257/presentation_display.asp).