What does the academic library of the future look like? Where do its walls begin and end? On campus? On our desktop? At home? Does it still have a function as a separate and distinct space? Or has it become the first step to an all-virtual future?ibraries have never been more interesting, difficult and challenging…

So says Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library: ‘What is a library and what should it be in 2012, 2020 and beyond are questions that require thought and debate.’
Plans are now in place for this debate which kicks off next week at the JISC conference. Sessions at the conference will explore this theme and hopefully some of the questions above. A Guardian supplement the following week will take them up too and hopefully, before long, we’ll all be giving them thought and debate…

‘I’m delighted that JISC is up for the task,’ says Lynne Brindley, about JISC’s new campaign theme. We hope others are too!