Becoming Visible Again: Exploring the Future of the Academic Library

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Becoming Visible AgainExploring the Future of
the Academic Library

• Tim Hackman
• University of Maryland Libraries
• April 30, 2007

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• Prepare a presentation that you would give to
  faculty members of a Linguistics or English
  department, that would help them understand
  current and future trends in academic libraries.
  Focus on those trends which affect reference,
  instructional services and collection management.

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(No Transcript)
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ACRLs Top Ten

• Digitization
• Evolving skills
• User demand
• Intellectual property
• Technology services

• Business model
• Customers consumers
• Distance learning
• Public information access
• Privacy

Mullins, James L., Frank R. Allen and Jon R.
Hufford. Top Ten Assumptions for the Future of
Academic Libraries A Report from the ACRL
Research Committee. College and Research
Libraries News. 68.4 (2007) 240-41.
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Tims Top Two

• Library Users Technology
• Improving our tools
• Improving our services
• Library Budgets Collections
• Crisis in scholarly communication
• Electronic resources and Digital Humanities

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Users Technology

• The NetGen The Next Generation of Library Users
  (or Non-Users?)

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Users Technology

• College Students Perceptions of Libraries and
  Information Resources (OCLC, 2005)
• 89 began with a search engine
• 2 began with a library Web site
• Satisfaction with the Web is high

http//www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm
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Users Technology Solutions

• Educate our users

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Solutions User Education

• The most important thing I learned today was
  honestly, just the basics on accessing the
  catalog and various databases. I feel much more
  confident, because previously I would search for
  books, but at times with little success.
• There is more information at the tip of my
  fingers than I had previously thought. I will
  scour this web site for information from now on.
• The most significant and useful thing that I
  learned today was about the MLA International
  Bibliography Database. I had no idea how useful
  such a database would be in my research and am
  glad to know about it!

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Users Technology Solutions

• Educate our users

• Integrated Programmatic
• Immediately relevant

• Go where they are
• Chat reference
• On-location reference
• Virtual spaces (e.g., Blackboard)

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(No Transcript)
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Users Technology Solutions

• Educate our users

• Integrated Programmatic
• Immediately relevant

• Go where they are
• Chat reference
• On-location reference
• Virtual spaces (e.g., Blackboard)

• Make our tools more like theirs

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Web 2.0

• Simplicity
• Rich interactivity
• User participation
• Collective intelligence
• Self-service
• Novel and remixed content

Storey, Tom. Web 2.0 Where Will the Next
Generation Web Take Libraries?
NextSpace The OCLC
Newsletter. 2 (2006). http//www.oclc.org/nextspac
e/002/1.htm.
Accessed April 14, 2007.
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Library 2.0
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Library 2.0
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Users Technology Solutions

• Educate our users
• Go where they are
• Make our tools more like theirs
• Web 2.0 principles

• Better combine discovery and delivery
• Digitization of unique collections

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Users Technology

• For librarians and university administrators,
  the introduction, reception and unparalleled
  growth of the Web and Web-based products have
  raised expectations about how library resources
  and services can be delivered. Limitless
  possibilities and high expectations promise to
  keep librarians and their administrators busy
  looking for funding to accommodate demand from
  users and staff.

Burton, Melody. All of Nothing At All The
Consequences of Pushing Electronic Resources
to the Desktop. Last One
Out Turn Out the Lights Is This the Future of
American and Canadian Libraries?
Ed. Susan E. Cleyle and Louise M. McGillis.
Lanham, MD Scarecrow, 2005. 108-122. p. 108.
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Budgets Collections

• Crisis in Scholarly Communication
• Electronic Resources Digital Humanities

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Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries
1986-2005
Association of Research Libraries. ARL Statistics
2004-05. 2006. http//www.arl.org/bmdoc/
arlstat05.pdf. Accessed April 20, 2007.
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UM Libraries ILL Activity 1997-2005
University of Maryland Libraries. Public Services
Counts, 1996-2005. http//www.lib.umd.edu/PASD/MIS
/statistics/libraries_data/usage2005.pdf.
Accessed April 20, 2007.
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Average Yearly Increases Electronic Resources
vs. Total Materials Expenditures 1993-2005
Association of Research Libraries. ARL Statistics
2004-05. 2006. http//www.arl.org/bm
doc/arlstat05.pdf. Accessed April 20, 2007.
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(No Transcript)
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Budgets Collections Solutions

• Alternatives
• Value-Based Pricing (Univ. of California)

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Value-Based Pricing

• Scholarly value and impact (e.g.,
  cost-per-citation and cost-per article indexes)
• Transparent and explicit indexes for changes in
  production costs
• Value-adding contributions from the purchasing
  institution (e.g., for editorial labor)
• Transaction efficiencies (e.g., consortial
  purchasing)

University of California Libraries Collection
Development Committee. The Promise of Value-Based
Journal Prices and Negotiations. January 2007.
http//libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/cdc.
Accessed April 15, 2007.
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Budgets Collections Solutions

• Alternatives
• Value-Based Pricing (Univ. of California)
• Open Access Movement
• Publishing (DOAJ, PLoS)
• Self-Archiving (DRUM, OLAC, AHDS)

• Advocacy

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Why Should You Care?

• Egregious and rising prices of scholarly journals
  place a barrier between faculty work and their
  potential readers, putting research and teaching
  at risk.
• Reasonable and sustainable pricing makes faculty
  scholarship affordable to readers and libraries
  alike, maximizing their works potential reach
  and thereby maximizing its impact.
• Unsustainable economicsimpacts all disciplines.
• Sustainable pricing in the publishing marketplace
  supports the free flow of ideas leading to the
  greater good within the academic community and
  society.

University of California Scholarly Communication
Officers. The Economics of
Scholarly Communication
A Scholarly Communication Issues and Outreach
Toolkit. 2006. http//libraries.universityofcalifo
rnia.edu/sco/toolkit_economics.html. Accessed
March 17, 2007.
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What Can You Do?

• Boycott unreasonably expensive journals
• Contribute to journals with reasonable business
  models
• Talk about publishing with your society
• Use, promote and cite journals that commit to
  reasonable pricing practices
• Examine the ideas and experiments in open access
• Use open access repositories

University of California Scholarly Communication
Officers. The Economics of
Scholarly Communication
A Scholarly Communication Issues and Outreach
Toolkit. 2006. http//libraries.universityofcalifo
rnia.edu/sco/toolkit_economics.html. Accessed
March 17, 2007.
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Budgets Collections Solutions

• Alternatives
• Value-Based Pricing (Univ. of California)
• Open Access Movement
• Publishing (DOAJ, PLoS, SPARC)
• Self-Archiving (DRUM, arXiv)

• Advocacy
• Push for increased funding

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The Invisible Library

• A paradox of the networked world is that as
  libraries become more and more embedded in the
  information infrastructure of universities,
  communities, governments, corporations, and other
  entities, the less visible they may become to
  their users, funders, and policy-makers.

Borgman, Christine. The Invisible Library
Paradox of the Global
Information
Infrastructure. Library Trends. 51.4 (2003)
652-674. p. 653
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Budgets Collections Solutions

• Alternatives
• Value-Based Pricing (Univ. of California)
• Open Access Movement
• Publishing (DOAJ, PLoS, SPARC)
• Self-Archiving (DRUM, arXiv)

• Advocacy
• Push for increased funding
• Push for administrative shifts (e.g., tenure)

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Digital Humanities

• There is no more urgent issue in the
  humanities today than the way that all of its
  disciplines--creative, critical, scholarly--are
  being transformed by New Media.
• Neil Fraistat, Director, MITH

Maryland Institute for Technology in the
Humanities (MITH).
http//www.mith.umd.edu/. Accessed April 26,
2007.
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Digital Humanities
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• Honor the past
• and create the future.
• --Michael Gorman

Gorman, Michael. Our Singular Strengths
Meditations for Librarians. Chicago ALA, 1998.
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Thank You!
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vdtLzvOsQ80k
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Thank You!
Questions?