Librarian Attitudes and Perceptions in the Transition to an Increasingly Electronic Environment: 200

1
Librarian Attitudes and Perceptions in the
Transition to an Increasingly Electronic
Environment 2006Kevin GuthrieRoger C.
SchonfeldJanuary 21, 2007
2
Who did we ask?

• Collection development directors
• US only
• Colleges and universities that grant the
  Bachelors Degree or higher

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The Respondents

• Surveys were completed by the following
  individuals

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Level of Importance Assigned to Library Functions
5
At your institution, how important are each of
the following functions of the library?

• Five functions are viewed as very important by
  more than 80 of respondents
• Maintaining a comprehensive electronic catalog of
  the librarys collection
• Purchasing/licensing electronic research
  resources and making them available to faculty
  and students
• Being a starting point or gateway for locating
  scholarly information
• Working with faculty to incorporate information
  resources into their lectures and curricula
• Partnering with faculty to promote more efficient
  and effective use of electronic research
  resources

6
At your institution, how important are each of
the following functions of the library?

• Five functions are viewed as very important by
  less than 30 of respondents
• Helping researchers to manage datasets and other
  research byproducts (28)
• Facilitating access to wikis, blogs, podcasts and
  other user-generated content alongside our
  scholarly materials (28)
• Performing research and publishing the results in
  library and information science journals (20)

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Transitioning to an Electronic-Only Journals
Environment
8
Librarians are preparing for the transition to an
electronic environment but are not quite there
yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement
9
Librarians are preparing for the transition to an
electronic environment but are not quite there
yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement
10
Librarians are preparing for the transition to an
electronic environment but are not quite there
yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement
11
Librarians are preparing for the transition to an
electronic environment but are not quite there
yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement
12
General Consistency Across Classes, but More
Immediacy at the UniversitiesPercent agreeing
strongly with each statement
13
Anticipating the Transition?

• Librarians anticipate a major transition, but is
  it coming sooner than they realize?
• Why do the research universities anticipate this
  transition sooner than the colleges and teaching
  universities?
• Are the liberal arts colleges special in this
  regard?
• How should libraries plan for and manage this
  transition?

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Preservation and Archiving
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Library Functions Now and Five Years from Now
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important
16
Print Preservation Is More Important at Smaller
Institutions
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to preserving traditional
library resources (e.g. hard copies, reference
materials and periodicals)
17
Access to Print Is More Important at Smaller
Institutions
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to ensuring the continued
availability of our local hard-copy collections
of scholarly journals
18
For Electronic-Archiving, the Pattern Is Reversed
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to Ensuring that
electronic scholarly journals are carefully
archived and available for the long-term
19
Preservation

• The importance of hard-copies, and the importance
  of their preservation, are in decline, especially
  at the universities
• They are beginning to become more focused on
  preservation of electronic materials
• How should this shift be managed strategically,
  to avoid some of the challenges that arose from
  the massive reformatting of newspaper collections?

20
The Future of Books
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E-Books Are Not Seen As Transforming the Library
22
E-Books Are Not Seen As Transforming the Library
23
But Are a Growing Priority for Libraries
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But Are a Growing Priority for Libraries
25
There Is More Enthusiasm for E-Books at Research
Universities
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The Future of E-Books

• E-Books may not lead to the rapid disappearance
  of print monographs, but is that only because
  reading interfaces have been slow to develop?
• Is the relatively higher enthusiasm for e-books
  at the universities a harbinger of the new order
  or are the research libraries out of touch?
• If e-books will prove to be transformative for
  users, or at least of growing importance, how
  should their development and role be managed?
• Is dirty OCR adequate for reader needs or will
  additional services be required?

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Digital Repositories
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Existence of Digital Repositories

• Some colleges and universities are creating
  digital repositories to store, archive, and/or
  make available certain kinds of scholarly
  information, which are sometimes called
  institutional repositories or digital asset
  management systems. Does your institution have
  such a digital repository for any kind of
  scholarly material?

29
Repositories Are Most Widely Available at
Universities
30
There is an expectation that all library types
will be maintaining repositories
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Maintaining our
institutional repository and other campus systems
containing electronic research resources.
Percent answering very or extremely important
31
The Goals that Exist for These Repositories

• Top goal Archiving and preserving your
  institutions intellectual assets (87 view it as
  very important)
• Maintaining an organized collection of your
  institutions intellectual assets (79)
• Promoting the knowledge generated at your
  institution for external scholars and readers
  (72)
• Promoting the knowledge generated at your
  institution for your own scholars and students
  (71)
• Ensuring that scholars have a location to deposit
  materials that they create in the course of their
  research (60)
• Contributing to the creation of a new framework
  for scholarly communication, in place of the
  existing system of publishers (47)

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And Universities Are Most Interested in Changing
Scholarly PublishingOf institutions with
repositories, importance of Contributing to the
creation of new framework for scholarly
communication, in place of the existing system of
publishers Percent responding very important
33
The Future of Repositories

• Repositories are far more common at universities
  than at smaller schools, although there is
  widespread interest in them
• Their main use to date is for images and special
  collections, where there is significant interest
  in sharing these materials across institutions
• This fits with the goals that exist for these
  repositories, which are to control and preserve
  the institutions intellectual assets and
  locally-generated knowledge
• How should repositories be managed and when
  should they be managed on a cross-institutional
  basis?

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JSTORs Development
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Librarians have a positive image of JSTOR
Overall image of JSTOR
36
To increase JSTORs value
37
To increase JSTORs value
38
To increase JSTORs value
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Some Questions for Discussion
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Some Questions for Discussion

• Transitioning to an Electronic-Only Journals
  Environment
• Is the transition happening sooner than is
  realized and how should it be managed?
• Preservation and Archiving
• How do we insure that we focus on the
  preservation of both print and electronic
  materials?
• The Future of Books
• Are there transformative uses of e-books in the
  absence of successful e-book readers? Will
  e-books eventually be transformative for the
  scholarly community?
• Repositories
• What are the systemwide effects of institutional
  repositories if they are primarily used to store
  and disseminate local knowledge assets?
• JSTORs development
• What are next steps JSTOR should take to enhance
  its value to its stakeholders?

41
Librarian Attitudes and Perceptions in the
Transition to an Increasingly Electronic
Environment 2006Kevin GuthrieRoger C.
SchonfeldJanuary 21, 2007kg_at_ithaka.org(212)
500-2600rcs_at_ithaka.org(212) 500-2338
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Library Directors View Print Preservation as More
Important, but All Perceive It to Be in Decline
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to preserving traditional
library resources (e.g. hard copies, reference
materials and periodicals)
43
At Universities, Library Directors See Less
Decline as a Gateway
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to A Gateway for Locating
Scholarly Information
44
At Universities, Library Directors See the
Importance of Electronic Archiving Today
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to ensuring that
electronic scholarly journals are carefully
archived and available for the long-term
45
But at Universities, Library Directors Do Not See
a Decline in the Importance of Local Hard-Copies
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to Ensuring the continued
availability of our local hard-copy collections
of scholarly journals
46
And Similarly See Less Decline for Comprehensive
Cataloging
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to Maintaining a
Comprehensive E-Catalog
47
Journal Content Is Held in Universities
Repositories
48
Images Lead in Multimedia Holdings
49
Special Collections Are Very Important, but
Local Collections Are More Important at Larger
Institutions
50
Datasets Have Yet to Make Much of an Impact
51
The Library as the Gateway?
52
Gateway Functions Are Seen to Decline Modestly
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important
53
Comprehensive Cataloging Is Less Important and
Declining More Rapidly at Universities
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to Maintaining a
Comprehensive E-Catalog
54
Similarly, Serving as a Gateway Is Less
Important and Declining More Rapidly at
Universities
How important are each of the following
functions of the library? Percent answering very
or extremely important to A Gateway for Locating
Scholarly Information
55
A Decline in the Gateway Function?

• Why do library leaders not perceive a significant
  decline in the gateway functions?
• Would such a decline in the gateway function be a
  strategic shift?
• How should libraries plan to manage this
  strategic shift, if in fact it is anticipated?