NSM Blog: Reflecting on the Future of the Library

A 22 November 2009 article ("Libraries Innovate to Counter Cuts") in the Chronicle of Higher Education explores the ways libraries are seeking innovative ways to address budgetary challenges and keep pace with ongoing evolution of the landscape of scholarly communications.

At Frye 2009, one of the speakers suggested that libraries were leading the way in the transformation of higher education, and that we could expect some lively discussion around the future of the library as a result. Many of the librarians and technologists in the audience where sceptical, but I'm starting to think there may be something to the idea that the discussions about the future of the Library presage discussions to come about the future of the academy.

What to Withdraw: Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization "analyzes the rationales for retaining some copies of scholarly journals in print format, determining that actual ongoing community needs for print materials...are significant but not unlimited."

The focus here is on scholarly journals with a goal of understanding "which materials are adequately safeguarded across the system [of all research libraries] such that withdrawals can safely proceed at a local level."

A recent article in Inside Higher Ed features a vigorous debate on the future of academic libraries. The comments provide an even wider range of perspectives (from librarians, at least, not many comments from other academics thus far...).

Ithaka's 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education is now available online. This white paper reports the key findings from two 2006 surveys examining the impact of new technologies on the behavior and attitude of faculty and librarians. Analyzing responses from two complementary studies, one based on a survey of faculty and the other on a survey of librarians, the Ithaka report provides insight into how the use of the use of information for research and teaching is changing in an increasingly electronic environment. The report concludes with some suggestions about how libraries and other like minded institutions might best serve faculty in a changing world.

The "New Directions Intitiative" at the UC Berkeley Libraries shows some remarkable similarities to the New Service Model process here at Illinois. The timing and the pace of these change processes are almost identical, and we are touching on many of the same themes. Perhaps we can learn from each other.

Earlier this year, the Council on Research Libraries (CLIR) convened a group of librarians, publishers, faculty members, and information technology specialists to consider the future of the research library in a "dynamic, swiftly changing landscape." A summary of that meeting, recommendations, and brief essays written by eight of the participants are included in the final report: No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century.

One of the core topical threads in the discussion involved a fundamental dilemma: libraries are profoundly conservative institutions (as follows from their traditional mission) but it is clear that we must respond to the changes around us or face the very real danger of becoming stuck in a niche that is getting smaller and smaller. So the questions is "How do we balance the conservative risk averse nature with the need to respond to a changing environment?" (p.4).

The report suggests a number of possible solutions that are explored in some depth in the essays. More broadly, the summary recommendations suggest thinking deeply about what it is we want to conserve, identifying those areas where libraries have the competitive advantage (e.g. preservation and standards), and finding new ways to engage and expand our traditional position at the center of campus and at the crossroads of disciplines.