There is a common misperception that all emerging information needs in the 3.0 environment require a technological response. Librarians should avoid this misperception, because sometimes users just feel a need to interact with a human being. In such cases, librarians may consider using human-based information services. One of the creative information service models which may be applicable in such Library 3.0 scenarios is the ‘borrow a person’ concept, which emerged in Denmark in 2000, also known as the ‘human library’ approach. The foundation of the concept is to create a forum for library users to meet people whose perspectives, experience or skills they are interested in. Libraries such as Toronto Public Library actually have volunteers who act as ‘human books’ whom users ‘borrow’ and converse with in the library. In Sweden, the concept has been expanded to enable library users to come face to face with their prejudices in the hope of altering their preconceived notions (Agence France-Presse, 2005). These prejudices could bear on sexual orientation, religion or xenophobia, for example. The ‘human library’ concept has been applied, with minimal variation, in public libraries in Canada, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Israel, Mexico, Colombia, Malaysia, China, Brazil, Moldova and the United States of America. At the time of writing this book, no ‘human libraries’ seem to have been reported in Africa.

Librarians may customise the ‘human library’ concept to their circumstances. For instance, they may deploy the model in the form of events which do not have to be held within specific library premises or opening hours. Most have been held in public places, book clubs, student centres, members’ clubs or recreation parks. The ‘human library’ concept is similar to storytelling which is commonly integrated in services targeting children or blind persons. However, the main difference is that the storytellers are the experts or practitioners sharing their own real life experiences on a face-to-face, one-on-one basis with interested library users. The interaction is between real people having real conversations. The role of the librarian in such circumstances is to provide an enabling environment for the participants to interact optimally. Librarians may also consider participating in this service model as storytellers and sharing their own experiences in information-searching and retrieval. This sharing may help users not only to employ effective information-searching techniques and tools but also to understand the challenges librarians encounter while offering services in research and academic libraries. The librarians may also use the service to share their own personal stories, which may be of social or professional benefit to their user communities.

Whereas the Library 3.0 model provides techniques and tools for solving pressing library problems, it also focuses attention on the end-user pain points. Therefore, librarians should strive to perceive solutions from the perspective of users. However, in doing this, the librarians should not merely prescribe solutions but also create an environment in which they facilitate users’ solving their own problems as they encounter them. One way of supporting research and academic library users in solving their own problems is by creating platforms which facilitate learning, interaction, community, innovation, enthusiasm and progress (Abram, 2009). To this end 3.0 libraries should provide environments which cater for visual-spatial (picture-smart); verbal-linguistic (word-smart); melodic-rhythmic (music-smart); logical-mathematical (number-smart); bodily-kinaesthetic (body-smart); interpersonal (people-smart); and intrapersonal (self-smart) aspects of learning (Kalelioglu and Gulbahar, 2010). In this manner research and academic libraries become learning spaces conducive to brainstorming, experimentation and problem solving in which the users apply their efforts exhaustively to create and consume the services that meet their own needs closely.

Library 3.0 spaces should also be multipurpose, so as to provide facilities for social, academic, technological and economic endeavours. Research and academic libraries will need to shift from being spaces where people go to access information to being spaces where people go to create customised services and products which they consume and share. Therefore research and academic libraries should provide more tools to create or access information than the current readily available information resources (Hopkins, 2012). Access to such tools has the potential to turn mere readers into writers, listeners into composers and television watchers into television producers. So it will not be strange in the near future to encounter research and academic libraries which have art studios, drama studios, band practice rooms, theatres, fitness centres, game stations or planetariums (Frey, 2008). It seems inevitable that research and academic librarians will have to work to transform research and academic libraries from storehouses of information resources to powerhouses of knowledge and creativity. This transformation will support the realisation of a fully Library 3.0 environment, which is about empowered users. As specialist communities of library users emerge, research and academic librarians will require the skills to support increasingly complex categories of users. These groups of users may include creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and those who have hitherto been inactive (Abram, 2009).

As mentioned earlier, library users are critical players in the Library 3.0 environment. Therefore, research and academic librarians should offer support to researchers, staff and students as collaborators and partners rather than as mere purveyors of predetermined information resources and services. Similarly, librarians should strive not to equate reading (library usage) with books (information resources). This shift requires librarians to be more helpful than has generally been the case by getting closely involved in the projects or assignments of users. They must go beyond pointing students and researchers to sections of the collection. Most users need guidance and even hand-holding in some cases. Librarians should consciously bring the human elements of information service provision to the librarian-user interaction and not rely too heavily on technology, because human expertise is an essential ingredient of an effective information service. Helping students with term papers and other assignments, for instance, builds deep relationships with them as users. Furthermore, as many library users become aware of the alternative information sources, research and academic librarians have to seek out users; they cannot afford to wait for the users to find them. Fortunately, research and academic library users working in a 3.0 environment are likely to seek out and choose librarians to work with on the basis of their history of meeting user information needs.

Another emerging issue in the 3.0 environment is the need for recreation in libraries. Most research and academic library users are usually busy and have little time, if any, to ‘play’. Many research and academic library users wish for a great personal experience in the library, which engages more than one of their senses. The libraries should address this need by going beyond their traditional boundaries to create environments in which users are able to have fun. With this emerging trend, it seems that ‘game librarianship’ – offering services such as games which create fun and facilitate play in libraries – may soon become a major function in research and academic libraries. Given that there are, as yet, no formal courses on gaming, ‘game librarians’ may learn only by playing.

Librarians should also harness the potentials of media convergence. An example of how this could be done is exemplified by the Information Gas Station (iGS) in Helsinki – referred to as the library without people – in which all information services are offered via the Internet. The answer to one reference question is read on radio once a week. The iGS also uses a mobile-phone-based information service, through which subscribers send out questions and receive answers from the other subscribers. All the correspondence is seen by all the subscribers. All the answers are archived for later reference. This service is easy to use and facilitates the subscribers’ access to services readily and at the point of need (Verho, 2008). Such services are important, given the high mobile-phone penetration rate in most parts of the world. Therefore, libraries will need to find more ways of using mobile phones effectively to provide services. If the pace of penetration remains as it currently is then mobile devices may well become the principal connection tool to the Internet in a few years to come. Librarians must strive to remain visible on mobile phone applications and services. One of the ways in which this could be done is by providing collections which are optimised for use on mobile phones. Similarly, librarians need to have information at their fingertips to be able to offer virtual services effectively. In a chat service, for instance, the emphasis would be on the rapid supply of accurate and links to appropriate information sources.

As mentioned in the previous chapters, Web 3.0 enables machines to find, share and communicate meaning. This is largely achieved through enhanced machine readability of content (Davis, 2011). Librarians working in the 3.0 environment should appreciate the power of the semantic web and master its tools. Librarians for many years have understood the connections between various types of data: in the 3.0 environment, however, they are now faced with the challenge of discerning how these connections will change or be influenced by social connectivity through networks. They should surmount this challenge by contributing to the creation of common links between data, resources and services (Davis, 2011). This challenge is critical because librarians – in spite of their immense expertise in information organisation, searching and retrieval – are often left out of important discussions pertinent to these issues, especially how to harness the potential of the vast reservoirs of information on the Internet. To achieve this effectively, librarians need to tell the other relevant professionals about what they are able to do and how this is achieved. The technological issues to which librarians may have to contribute include integrating the web with the real world around users; facilitating real-time updates from real-world objects; and effectively deploying ‘print on demand’ (POD) technology for out of print, rare, precious or generally inaccessible information resources, among others.

Oakleaf (2010) explains that research and academic libraries are under great pressure to prove their worth. Therefore librarians are increasingly being required to document and articulate the value of research and of academic libraries and their contribution to institutional missions and goals. Town (2011) also reports that some librarians have acknowledged that they have failed to communicate the value of their services effectively and that there is an increasing risk that much of what libraries actually do may be invisible in a virtual environment. It is becoming increasingly important for libraries to demonstrate that the services that they provide contribute substantially to the achievement of institutional goals. Librarians working in the 3.0 environment will be expected to conceptualise, compile and disseminate reports to donors, sponsors, parent institutions and other stakeholders, demonstrating their worth. To accomplish this, the librarians will need to devise a creative way of demonstrating success. As the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA, 2004) explains, the success of any information service transaction is not only judged by the quality of the information accessed but also by the positive or negative impact of the librarian-user interaction. In its behavioural performance guidelines for reference and information service providers, the association avers that to achieve a positive impact, librarians need to be approachable and accessible; demonstrate high interest in users and their questions; exhibit strong listening and inquiring skills; possess technical expertise in searching and retrieval exemplified by a mastery of search tools and techniques; and follow up to assess success (RUSA, 2004).

It is evident from the foregoing that although the basic professional tenets of librarianship remain the same, the methods, tools, scope and environment of information delivery continue to change dramatically (Special Libraries Association, 2003). Myburgh (2003) describes the emerging information environment as being hypertext, networked and digital (virtual) and characterised by disintermediation, convergence, connectedness, competition, globalisation, the information explosion and vacillating funding provisions. Consequently, research and academic libraries, just like the other library types, are continually facing new challenges and expectations from stakeholders. For instance, the LIBER 43^rd Annual Conference, ‘Research Libraries in the 2020 Landscape’ call for papers emphasises scholarly communication and the role of the librarian in facilitating access. The information landscape is currently characterised by ubiquitous, digitised, indexed and online access to content in which researchers often complete their searches for information online without visiting a physical library or consulting a librarian. The topics in the LIBER Conference Programme all also demonstrate the perception that the research libraries of the future will be multi- institutional entities collaborating with multiple researchers, stakeholders and information providers; open to change and to embracing discovery, and largely digital, holding federated collections organised and delivered digitally through converged ubiquitous media. Such libraries will support the creation of research information, connect research communities, and provide the physical and virtual infrastructure to facilitate their use. Taken together, the indication is that the dynamic information environment requires versatile and better-educated information professionals who, besides librarianship and technical information skills, also possess good change management, communication, leadership and people management skills.