The mission of public libraries in the new informational ecology: a Hispano-American perspective

The current changes in the world of public libraries are examined, as the articles published in the current monographic of the journal Scire (vol. 13, no. 1, Jan.-June 2007) are commented. First, the mission of the public library at the service of social development is examined. This service is made possible by facilitating learning, and mainly self-learning. So, the library must be considered an educational tool for social promotion and personal self-actualization. Second, the incorporation of public libraries to the digital arena is discussed. The Internet requires a new configuration of the public library services into the emergent "information ecology". Some of the tasks in which the public library may excel are assisting citizens in accessing and navigating the digital universe, preserving and disseminating the local information heritage, and expanding its proximity service factor into a wider conception of citizen information.