Penetrating questions, these. But not without appropriate answers and expert opinions, though. 

Little wonder that the Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre was heavy with talent from 25-27 April 2001 as delegates from Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam descended into Singapore for the region's first conference on these issues, e-tlas, or Emerging Trends in Library and Archival Services. 

Singapore's National Library Board (NLB), the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) and Asia International Book Fair/International Library Expo (AIBF/ILE) had taken the initiative to organise this think-tank conference. The goals of the conference were clear: 
 

R. Ramachandran, Assistant Chief Executive, NLB and Secretary-General of the Congress of the Southeast Asian Librarians (CONSAL) was excited that it was the first time these knowledge handlers have taken the effort to come to Singapore "to actively discuss the strategies and technological capabilities that their institutions need to contribute to their countries' knowledge-driven initiatives, as well as reinforce the strong professional relations among participants". It also strongly positioned Singapore as a global information hub. 

The theme was "Re-inventing Centres of Information Excellence". Practitioners as well as end-users had ample opportunities to share the secrets of their success, lessons from failures and even tactical and strategic maneuvers and hard falls. 

Judging from outcomes, the conference affirmed the central role of libraries and memory institutions in society in contributing to education, especially life-long learning, cultural development and stewardship of heritage. It also provided regional examples of organisations that seized the opportunities offered by change and transformed themselves. NLB's innovative strategy and services was one shining example while Shanghai Public Library was admirably held up as a knowledge portal. 

Participants were also given practical tools plus the confidence to effect change by being given an insight and understanding of issues. 

The days of brainstorming had some concrete results. Major themes emerged. It was agreed that convergence not only happened between libraries, archives and museums but also between libraries, publishing and IT providers. There was also the scope, and the need for collaboration, especially in complex areas such as digitization at a local, regional as well as global level. Libraries needed to be relevant to citizens in particular and society in general. Library models, too, were changing quickly and they extended from the real to the virtual and were fast becoming libraries without walls as virtual collections could be accessed electronically. 

The conference--while being a good start of things to come--created a number of future actions that had to be developed further: plans for regional collaboration; information sharing about developments and guidelines; feasibility studies of electronic knowledge transfer. Further in-depth exploration of future e-tlas conferences will cover complex issues raised at the inaugural discussions. These include people management, training, Asian content development, and digitization. 

The ideas testified strongly to one thing: the library was not going to go away quietly. If at all, its future was altogether bright!  The delegates agreed that while Southeast Asia is a heterogeneous region with considerable diversity and differences, as long as change is readily and enthusiastically embraced and technology properly harnessed by the group, the once unimaginable would become reality.