Stephen Joseph

As the way people read literature and search for information continues to change, libraries are changing with the times and finding ways to remain relevant and even attract new members.

But regardless of the changes, the role of library staff members remains the same — helping people decide what information best suits their needs.

Stephen Joseph, the dean of library services for Butler County Community College, said that while the changing times are undeniable, the jobs of, and need for, trained librarians have mostly remained the same.

“When you get right down to it, the job is similar,” Joseph said. “With all these additional resources, librarians still have an important role in helping people use the resources and evaluate the sources they find.”

Joseph said the rise of digital archives, e-lending and other online tools means researchers have to be more careful than ever while vetting what they’ve found.

“You can find lots and lots of information, but public library users and students both need the tools to look at the sources they find and see — are they credible, relevant and reliable? And that’s the crux of a reference librarian’s job,” he said.

But Joseph admitted the digital age can present a catch-22 situation for libraries.

“It raises an interesting issue. You want to make the library as welcoming, comfortable and attractive as it can be,” Joseph said. “On the other hand, you’re trying to provide a lot of resources so people don’t have to come to the library. And you’re trying to achieve both goals usually with the same budget you would have had before all this happened.”

The digital age may be powerful, but it hasn’t and won’t completely eliminate hard-copy libraries, said Lori Hinderliter, the executive director of Butler Public Library.

“Things have definitely changed for us, but maybe not in the ways most people think,” Hinderliter said. “We still have print items, and we will always have items in print.”

But the new technology has provoked a shift in library programming, with a focus on classes that teach people how to access electronic databases and use e-readers. The library offers one-on-one classes so it can focus on people’s individual needs, and it is branching out from simple research and book lending to include classes on things like completing online job applications.

But the library isn’t ignoring the power of digital archives, Hinderliter said. It has a digital magazine service where members can access roughly 50 titles. It also provides e-books through multiple services, as well as a service focused completely on comic books and graphic novels — with triple-A titles like DC Comics and “The Walking Dead” available to readers.

“It’s exciting for the most part. It’s always interesting to see what’s out there and what’s going to be coming in the future,” Hinderliter said. “The only drawback we’ve seen is the cost of the technology.”

The rise of e-books and digital archives isn’t the only thing influencing changes at libraries. Joseph said the basic concept of what a library is — how it looks, how people act when they are inside — is changing.

That is represented in the renovation of BC3’s Heaton Family Learning Commons, which is in the midst of a $5.1 million transformation expected to be complete by fall semester of this year.

The work will turn the college’s library, which was built in 1973, from a dark and compact building into a window-lit, open design that will feature group work rooms and digital workspaces that cater to students’ needs — from accessing digital archives and online databases to charging their laptops.

“The renovation kind of speaks to that change (in thinking),” Joseph said. “Libraries are a little more social; a place to come together. It becomes not necessarily the quiet library of the past. The building’s going to have more of a social element to it than people generally associate with libraries.”