the changing face of academic libraries

Maureen WadeDirector of Library Services LSE

5 August 2009

The changing face of libraries: an academic

perspective

Changing face of academic libraries

• Changing HE environment• Shift from print to electronic information• Changing expectations and behaviour of

library users• Pressure on budgets and space

Changing HE environment

• Government agenda on expansion of universities

• The student as customer – improving the student experience

• Government pressure to produce and disseminate research – linked to funding

Shift from print to electronic information

• E-journals well-established; e-books slower to take-off

• Libraries still managing print as well as e-resources

• More complex resource discovery and access issues

• Expectation of information in digital format

Use of e-journals• RIN report: E-journals: their use, value and

impact, April 2009• UK universities spent nearly £80 million on

e-journals in 2006/07 • Estimate of 102 million articles downloaded

in one year• Back-runs as well as current journals

increasingly available• On-campus and remote access

E-books

• Availability of large collections of e-books eg Oxford Scholarship Online

• Title-by-title acquisition of e-books for course reading

• Availability of e-book readers: Sony, Kindle

• Awaiting tipping point in usage of e-books

Resource discovery

• Library catalogues primarily designed for access to print books

• Library users want access to e-journals at article level

• Libraries need to integrate access to information in different formats

• Students and researchers expect Google-type search options

Access issues

• Universities moving to streamline access to e-resources – single sign-on

• Reciprocal access between libraries for print collections – for e-resources hampered by licensing conditions

• Moves by JISC, SCONUL and M25 Consortium to address this issue

Changing user expectations

• Most information should be available electronically

• Google-type search functionality and integration

• Variety of types of study space to suit different styles of working

• Libraries will collect and manage universities’ research outputs

Pressure on library budgets and space

• Hybrid libraries – collecting print and electronic no longer affordable

• Extra costs of VAT on e-resources and higher-than-RPI inflation

• Pressure on space of continuing growth of print collections

• Pressure on space and budgets of expanding student numbers

How are academic libraries meeting these challenges?

• Shift from print to electronic information

• The Library as a place• Financial pressures• Managing universities’ research

outputs

Print to electronic – resource discovery

• Purchase of journal records to provide article-level searching

• Cataloguing of e-books alongside print• Use of web 2.0 tools to highlight collections

– blogs, Delicious tags, Facebook presence• Add-on interfaces to library catalogues – to

give Google-type searching and Amazon functionality

Digitisation of print

• Collaboration with commercial providers eg Google / Oxford

• JISC £22m digitisation programme 2004-09• 19th century pamphlets online• First World War poetry digital archive• British Cartoon Archive

• Individual university fundraising

The Library as a place

• Services to academic staff are increasingly delivered to the desktop

• Collaboration to reduce duplication in print collections – UK Research Reserve project

• Focus on high-quality storage of archives and special collections

• Design of range of study spaces to suit diverse needs

Changing study space needs

• Group study – large areas and bookable rooms

• Learning cafes – food and drink, soft seating

• Silent areas for individual study• Fixed PCs still required • Wireless everywhere plus power for

laptops

Coping with financial pressures

• Use of self-service• RFID for self-service loans• Virtual reference desk software• Information skills via VLE

• Focussing collection policies in liaison with academic staff

• Providing course materials online to cut down on multiple copies

Library’s role to promote research output

• Huge rise in institutional repositories of research papers

• Universities bringing in ‘mandates’ to ensure deposit of research papers

• Theses increasingly being made available in institutional repositories

• Work underway on formats and metadata standards

What does this all this change mean for library staff?

• Basic values and skills remain essential• Leadership and strategic vision• Effective management of people and

resources• Subject knowledge & information

management skills• Customer service ethos

New roles /skills forlibrary staff

• More technical knowledge of information systems and software

• Knowledge of metadata formats and standards – building on cataloguing /classification

• Specialist roles emerging eg digitisation manager, data librarian, information skills trainer

• Marketing skills – targeting services to specific user groups

Questions?