In response to: Digital books can create hurt (for libraries)

Adam Corson-Finnerty [Visitor] — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 11:40:58 +0000

Peter,

I just finished reading through your posts on Mass Books/e-books/Google Books. In this group I pick up one assumption that I would like to challenge: it's the notion that librarians need to save libraries. I think that's the wrong place to start.

Modern public and academic libraries were founded to seize an opportunity (printed material) and meet a need (access). Over time, academic libraries became critical players in the evolving system of scholarly communication, in addition to providing print access for students and teachers.

The Internet has broken this apart. New methods of access and new pathways for scholarly communication are evolving. Libraries, as we have known them, are threatened with irrelevance.

I am sure that you have addressed this from the positive angle in your various talks and writings, but I am picking up on the "negative" angle--we must save the Library, we must save ourselves--because I see it in so many discussions among librarians--and in some of the programs that we launch in desperate response.

Seriously, I sometimes think that librarians are playing Scheherazade, trying to come up with new gimmicks to make ourselves seem attractive, useful, and popular, so that we can stay alive. (Hey, that’s pretty good! But not as poetic as your terrific “maintenance of digital standards is a shroud whipped away by the wind with its owner dancing wildly and frantically behind it.”)

Anyway, I think that we should focus on the new needs and opportunities that have arisen out of the very forces that are shaking our foundations. Digital preservation is one. Physical preservation of printed and other artifacts is another (but re-thought in light of the digital opportunities; i.e., how many copies of a book do we need to maintain in high density storage libraries around the country, once we have digital access and POD). Assisting with new methods of teaching and learning is another need/opportunity.

But the biggest need is the impending brokenness of the system of scholarly communication itself. This is also the biggest opportunity: The opportunity for the library to play the role of information leadership for the academy.

A colleague is currently completing a study of scholarly publishing. She interviewed senior administrators on many campuses, and what she found was that almost no one is thinking strategically about the information needs—and opportunities—for the 21st century university. Almost no one, except the libraries.

Academic libraries are thinking about this because we are the canaries in the coal mine. We are the ones who have to pay for all the "stuff." We buy the books, the journals, the e-journals; we license the databases; we have even started e-publishing our own content (from the stacks and vaults) and new content (from our faculty and students). All of this with very little new money, usually less than the inflation rate, much less than the academic inflation rate, and way less than the journal inflation rate.

We are among the first to feel the pain of the old system dying and the new system aborning, and we are constantly adapting and adjusting to try to make it all work. We are also the ones who spot the new opportunities (direct access to research datasets, GIS, scholarly repositories, multi-media "publications," medical informatics, the National Virtual Observatory) and try to figure out how to capture new value for our clients.

I wish I could remember where I saw this observation: academic librarians are the one part of the academy that has directly and largely successfully addressed the information revolution that will soon transform all of higher education. (It might be James Duderstadt, former UM pres.)

Right now, bold information leadership is needed on each and all of our campuses, and for the most part, this leadership is not being provided by our presidents and provosts, nor have they delegated the task to any unit or cross-campus task force. Right now, academic libraries are the only cross-campus body that is even capable of addressing this issue—because we see it in all its complexity, and we feel it each budget cycle. It is the time for librarians to be bold. Forget saving-the-library. Start building the new university.

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In response to: Digital books can create hurt (for libraries)