Minds Alive explores the enduring role and intrinsic value of libraries, archives, and public institutions in the digital age. Featuring international contributors, this volume delves into libraries and archives as institutions and institutional partners, the professional responsibilities of librarians and archivists, and the ways in which librarians and archivists continue to respond to the networked age, digital culture, and digitization.

The endless possibilities and robust importance of libraries and archives are at the heart of this optimistic collection. Topics include transformations in the networked digital age; Indigenous issues and challenges in custodianship, ownership, and access; the importance of the harmonization of memory institutions today; and the overarching significance of libraries and archives in the public sphere. Libraries and archives – at once public institutions providing both communal and private havens of discovery – are being repurposed and transformed in intercultural contexts. Only by keeping pace with users’ changing needs can they continue to provide the richest resources for an informed citizenry.

Patricia A. Demers is a distinguished university professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta.

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Toni Samek is a professor and chair at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta.

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