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Recently I heard a phrase from a radio commercial—for
what product or service, I don’t know—that said
something like “Wherever in the world people may be going,
they’re all going in the same direction: the future.” As
aphorism, this may or may not be useful; but as library principle,
the phrase does reflect where we want to be. Many libraries
are moving forward rapidly toward an undefined future, even
as we respect and retain some of the traditions of the past.
Our progress is both enhanced by mass digitization projects
and hampered by them, particularly when we consider the concept
of library as place. I believe this is particularly true for
academic libraries.
Riggs Library, circa 1969.
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An
engineer recently asked me, “How soon before your
entire collection is digitized?” This was a very
practical way of expressing what another colleague told
me she was asked by someone at her institution: “What
is the teleology of the 21st-century library?” In
both instances there is an underlying assumption that
the world of library information will be accessible ubiquitously,
and therefore the academy may no longer need physical
libraries. That assumption probably arises from conventional
wisdom that few people go to a library for information
any more; from national library studies suggesting decline
in usage of physical collections; from perceptions of
user behavior in the net-savvy world; and from the availability
of high-quality federated searches through a very simple
dialog box with access to “everything.” Yet
so many academic librarians report borrowing statistics
that are at least holding their own, if not actually
growing, as well as increases in physical visits verified
by gate counts—especially among those institutions
that have remodeled or have included “user-friendly” amenities
like coffee bars within the library. |
It is not difficult for a librarian to imagine that the future
of, say, ten years, will still include physical objects among
our collections almost to the extent that they exist today.
Yet it’s clearly a truism that certain disciplines can
benefit more rapidly from e-access than others. An engineer
may think that the digital object is the future and that the
problem of a sustainable digital archive will be resolved.
Virtual space is thus more important to the engineer than physical
space. However, in addition to the type of library, the type
of user is critical to the prediction of what libraries need
to be in our foreseeable future. A scholar, researcher or professor
thoroughly versed in her field understands the literature of
the discipline, along with the quality sources in which important
work is previewed or published. But the average undergraduate
isn’t so well versed; that’s one of the aims of
her education. Browsing a library’s catalog or a library’s
shelves is quite important to the discovery, serendipitous
or systematic, of portions of that literature. The next step
is to know that there is a place to go to receive expert advice
on what constitutes quality of resource. That place is the
library.
Lauinger Library Second Floor, 2007.
Librarians already offer terrifically innovative ways to meet
their users wherever they exist. Many librarians are “embedded” in
classrooms, faculty offices, student residences. Many communicate
with 24/7 virtual reference; others text message or IM their
constituents. In these respects, librarians are moving fast
toward the future and the concept of “place as library” resonates.
But what physical libraries provide, which not enough people
recognize, is both community and opportunity for the extension
of scholarly communication. When students gather with their
colleagues to discuss a group project, they know they have
immediate access to resources and services they will need.When
faculty members bring their students into a library’s
communal area for office hours over a cup of coffee, they extend
the conversation beyond the classroom into a more relaxed,
yet still scholarly environment.When librarians expose the
fabulous research materials, regardless of format, to a class
of emerging scholars, they offer interaction to those who might
otherwise be reluctant to approach a faculty member. In fact,
in Educause terms, we have entered the “interaction age.” Libraries
are “living and learning” centers and we need to
design our spaces, both physical and virtual, with our continuously
growing and changing users in mind.
Ironically, librarians today are often faced with displacement—either
of seating for users or of shelving for materials—because
we have outgrown our facilities as our resources and services
grow. Those who assume that ubiquitous digital access negates
the need for physical expansion are forgetting that libraries
are learning spaces. And perhaps most importantly, our mission
to collect and preserve materials for posterity moves us forward
to the future, not backward to tradition. The future of 21st
century scholars and scholarship rests with libraries, and
spaces for living, learning and research will be more important
than ever.
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