Book excerpt: While it's inspiring to ponder the libraries of the 22nd century, it's a lot more practical to think ahead to the next five years. That's just what Varnum and his hand-picked team of contributors have done, showing library technology staff and administrators where to invest time and money to receive the greatest benefits. Their ideas will stimulate strategic thinking and help library staff make informed decisions about meeting user expectations and delivering services. Sure conversation starters and informative for any library, chapters include “Impetus to Innovate: Convergence and Library Trends,” by A.J. Million and Heather Lea Moulaison“Hands-Free Augmented Reality: Impacting the Library Future,” by Brigitte M. Bell and Terry Cottrell“Libraries and Archives Augmenting the World,” by William Denton“The Future of Cloud-Based Library Systems,” by Steven Bowers and Elliot Jonathan Polak“Library Discovery: From Ponds to Streams,” by Varnum“Exit As Strategy: Web Services as the New Websites for Many Libraries,” by Anson Parker, VP Nagraj, and David Moody“Reading and Non-Reading: Text Mining in Critical Practice,” by Devin Higgins“Bigger, Better, Together: Building the Digital Library of the Future,” by Jeremy York“The Case for Open Hardware in Libraries,” by Jason Griffey This compendium offers an expert-level view of the library technology that’s just around the corner.