The next 17 years in learning resources, libraries, and librarians
I often think about libraries. An Inside Higher Ed article on embedded librarians provided much needed informational nutrition to my thought processes.
The Library at Alexandria was in essence a college with scholars, scientists, and literary men associated with the collection. Librarians too. Yet the point to Alexandria was the vast collection of information therein, that was the central focus. The information existed on physical media, generating a new copy required scribes and hours of copying by hand. The copies required vast amounts of labor and as such were both rare and valuable.
The computer age has fundamentally changed that. Electronic copies are produced instantly and are essentially free of cost on a per copy basis. And, more critically, electronic copies are not limited to a single physical location on a shelf in a building - they can be stored anywhere on the planet and accessed at the speed of the Internet anywhere else on the planet. Information is no longer physically concentrated.
The library as a concept must also be rethought and redeveloped. Sure, Welch Medical Library is unique in a way that lets it be cutting edge. Of course we will be and should be well behind that curve. Yet we ought to look out towards the far horizon and vision the information resources of the future.
Nearly any fool can use Google, but framing a query for Wolfram Alpha takes skill and knowledge. How many faculty actually use the library and how many now depend on the Internet for their information resources? I cannot speak for other faculty, but when I need a fact, an equation, or information, I go on line, not over to the library. I visit the library primarily to check out books for my children to read and to utilize the DVD collection for my classes. Those are my two primary uses.
The library has become, for better or worse, a place to study, to work on assignment for classes, and to access academic email.
No, I am not advocating a sudden or radical change. In 1993 I wrote a vision document for the Learning Resources Center. That document called for an evolution towards a new look for the library. At the time the library contained only books and the college had only fifteen computers in a business computer laboratory. The vision felt like something that could only be a dream. The team that was led by Dakio, Iris, and later Chris Bull brought into existence an LRC that today is rather amazingly similar to that impossible dream.
The call for integrated planning is an opportunity for a new team to draft a new plan that looks out ahead over the next 17 years. A plan that looks at where learning resources are moving and supports those resources. I see students unwrapping their shiny new lap top computers from the bookstore, getting hooked up to the wireless network by IT, and then accessing information resources from anywhere and everywhere on campus.
One can almost imagine a roving librarian wandering the nooks and crannies of campus to provide assistance on finding information in the cyber-collection. Many times I have suggested that a student use the site: or define: command in Google to refine a search, much as a reference librarian might steer a customer to a subject specific encyclopedia.
How many students know about the Internet archives for example? Or for that matter, how many librarians? I needed a web page from 1998 so I could include this image of the library taken early one morning in 1998.
That is a "How do I find" question that in the day and age of the Library at Alexandria I would have asked a library docent.
The image is from the archived page held in the Internet Archives. The world may eventually move beyond physical libraries, but the world will always need librarians.
What are the other elements of a cutting edge learning resource center seventeen years from now? Yes, cutting edge. That was the impossible dream in 1993, a cutting edge learning resource center. You cannot intentionally go somewhere without dreaming of the journey first. Time to start dreaming and planning!
The Library at Alexandria was in essence a college with scholars, scientists, and literary men associated with the collection. Librarians too. Yet the point to Alexandria was the vast collection of information therein, that was the central focus. The information existed on physical media, generating a new copy required scribes and hours of copying by hand. The copies required vast amounts of labor and as such were both rare and valuable.
The computer age has fundamentally changed that. Electronic copies are produced instantly and are essentially free of cost on a per copy basis. And, more critically, electronic copies are not limited to a single physical location on a shelf in a building - they can be stored anywhere on the planet and accessed at the speed of the Internet anywhere else on the planet. Information is no longer physically concentrated.
The library as a concept must also be rethought and redeveloped. Sure, Welch Medical Library is unique in a way that lets it be cutting edge. Of course we will be and should be well behind that curve. Yet we ought to look out towards the far horizon and vision the information resources of the future.
Nearly any fool can use Google, but framing a query for Wolfram Alpha takes skill and knowledge. How many faculty actually use the library and how many now depend on the Internet for their information resources? I cannot speak for other faculty, but when I need a fact, an equation, or information, I go on line, not over to the library. I visit the library primarily to check out books for my children to read and to utilize the DVD collection for my classes. Those are my two primary uses.
The library has become, for better or worse, a place to study, to work on assignment for classes, and to access academic email.
No, I am not advocating a sudden or radical change. In 1993 I wrote a vision document for the Learning Resources Center. That document called for an evolution towards a new look for the library. At the time the library contained only books and the college had only fifteen computers in a business computer laboratory. The vision felt like something that could only be a dream. The team that was led by Dakio, Iris, and later Chris Bull brought into existence an LRC that today is rather amazingly similar to that impossible dream.
The call for integrated planning is an opportunity for a new team to draft a new plan that looks out ahead over the next 17 years. A plan that looks at where learning resources are moving and supports those resources. I see students unwrapping their shiny new lap top computers from the bookstore, getting hooked up to the wireless network by IT, and then accessing information resources from anywhere and everywhere on campus.
One can almost imagine a roving librarian wandering the nooks and crannies of campus to provide assistance on finding information in the cyber-collection. Many times I have suggested that a student use the site: or define: command in Google to refine a search, much as a reference librarian might steer a customer to a subject specific encyclopedia.
How many students know about the Internet archives for example? Or for that matter, how many librarians? I needed a web page from 1998 so I could include this image of the library taken early one morning in 1998.
That is a "How do I find" question that in the day and age of the Library at Alexandria I would have asked a library docent.
What are the other elements of a cutting edge learning resource center seventeen years from now? Yes, cutting edge. That was the impossible dream in 1993, a cutting edge learning resource center. You cannot intentionally go somewhere without dreaming of the journey first. Time to start dreaming and planning!
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