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Future libraries: Shared p-book repositories for some? E-books to prevail? Bad economy to hasten changes?
September 24, 2009 | 9:10 am
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By Paul Biba
In a controversial presentation, Daniel Greenstein—vice provost for academic planning and programs of the University of California System—said:
The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas. …
“We’re already starting to see a move on the part of university libraries… to outsource virtually all the services [they have] developed and maintained over the years,” Greenstein said. Now, with universities everywhere still ailing from last year’s economic meltdown, administrators are more likely than ever to explore the dramatic restructuring of library operations.
Within the decade, he said, groups of universities will have shared print and digital repositories where they store books they no longer care to manage.
The above is from a conference that Inside Higher Ed reported on. The whole article is here.
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Comments:
The article’s comments highlight an understandable concern about the traditional roles of the institutionalized library in academia.
Librarians do play a key role in providing assistance and services to students and professors, and much of that should not be lost. However, their roles can also benefit from a lessening of the chores required to maintain an expansive “physical plant” of books and shelf space. Hopefully, the digitization of our libraries would accomplish this, and make their interactive roles that much more meaningful and effective.
Obviously, the solution is somewhere between an unchanged library system, and a building razed to the ground and replaced with a few web kiosks in a franchised storefront space.