Envisioning the Future: Challenges, Issues, and Directions

Libraries' Summer Symposium 2004
(Outline of PowerPoint presentation)

Marianne Gaunt
University Librarian
July 22, 2004

Context: Research Libraries

Challenges

• Institutional change and priorities
• Changing information landscape
• Developing and maintaining the IT infrastructure
• Physical facilities/space
• Competition for resources
• Communication
• Assessment measures
• Managing change

Institutional Change and Priorities

• Student diversity and expectations
• New media teaching and learning
• Cross-institutional collaborations
• Multi-disciplinary programs/centers
• Escalation in external support

Student Diversity and Expectations

• Ethnically/racially diverse population
• Older students/working adults
• Media-intense generation
• Focus on convenience
• Escalating distance ed/online instruction

Implications and Expectations

• Integrated spaces– socializing, eating, studying, learning
• Media used for research, study, entertainment, socializing
• Services and resources available 24x7 and delivered to the desktop
• Competing with Google for information access
• Information literacy for life-long learning

Institutional Context: New Media Teaching and Learning

• Partnerships across the university
• Surfacing academic content
• Connecting content to courseware
• Preserving instructional objects
• Delivering media across the university

Institutional Context: Cross-Institutional Collaborations

• Access to collections and services
• Authentication and authorization
• Acceptable balances/reciprocity
• Corporate/academic relations

Institutional Context: Multidisciplinary Programs

• Collection development
• Language expertise
• Fund accounting/output data
• Selector/liaison responsibility

Information Landscape: Public Policy Issues

• Copyright and intellectual property
• Telecommunications policies
• Intellectual freedom
• Privacy

Information Landscape: Scholarly Communication

• Cost of information content
• Licensing vs. purchase
• Open access movement
• Digital repositories
• Digital rights management or Digital restrictions management

IT Infrastructure

• Digital preservation/archiving
• Standards
• Capacity/bandwidth
• Information integration
• Information customization/portals
• Ongoing costs

Library Space/Facilities

• Growth in collections
• Changes in how students work and study
• Dysfunctional design of current space
• Growth in instructional programs
• Changes in public service programs
• Accommodating non-library operations
• Collaborations with other units

External Funding/Financial Resources

• Annual giving
• Friends
• Gifts-in-kind
• Federal and foundation grants
• Named positions
• Fees for services/programs
• Sale of products
• Licensing space

Communications

• Communicating complexities
• Communicating resources and services
• Selecting appropriate media
• Recognizing multiple audiences
• Clarity and consistency of message

Assessment

• Outputs not inputs
• Standards/definitions
• Methodologies
• Demonstrating added value

Managing Change

• Continuous professional development
• Re-thinking organizational structures, policies, culture
• Resource allocation tied to strategic plans

Changing Roles for Librarians

• Publishers
• Educators
• Policy advocates
• Researchers and developers
• Entrepreneurs
• Intermediaries and aggregators