Thinking back over this past year’s library reads, Michael Agresta’s Slate piece, “What will become of the library?” was one of my favorites. It perfectly captures the zeitgeist of libraries in the second decade of this millennium and it is a good reminder of the social and intellectual potential that libraries offer their communities.

Libraries will only survive if the communities they serve want and need them to. […] In the end, it’s up to us—scholars, makers, and artists, seekers of community, access, and safe haven, and above all, readers in the old, human sense of the word—to rise to the level of these monuments we’ve built.

As I think about 2016 and my role as a librarian in the future of higher ed, this article puts me in useful state of mind.