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Today's Vibrant, Far fromDeserted, Academic LibrariesLynn Scott Cochrane MSLS, PhD a b ca Catholic University of America, Virginia Tech , USAb Denison University in Granville , OH, 43023, USAc College Library Section , The Association of College& Research LibrariesPublished online: 11 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Lynn Scott Cochrane MSLS, PhD (2002) Today's Vibrant, Far fromDeserted, Academic Libraries, College & Undergraduate Libraries, 9:2, 1-4, DOI:10.1300/J106v09n02_01

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J106v09n02_01

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Today’s Vibrant, Far from Deserted,Academic Libraries

Lynn Scott Cochrane

ABSTRACT. The inflammatory title, if not the text, of Scott Carlson’sNovember, 2001 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “TheDeserted Library: As Students Work Online, Reading Rooms EmptyOut–Leading Some Campuses to Add Starbucks,” presented a misleadingview of today’s college and undergraduate libraries. This guest editorial re-buts Carlson’s argument and cites evidence to support a different view of re-cent trends in usage of academic libraries. [Article copies available for a feefrom The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail ad-dress: <getinfo@haworthpressinc.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>© 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Library usage, attendance statistics, remote access to in-formation, library services

Lynn Scott Cochrane (MSLS, Catholic University of America; PhD, Virginia Tech)is Director of Libraries, Denison University in Granville, OH 43023 and 2001-2002Chair, College Library Section of The Association of College & Research Libraries(address e-mail to: cochrane@denison.edu).

Authors wishing to submit editorial essays for consideration may submit them tothe journal editor, Inga H. Barnello, Noreen Reale Falcone Library, Le Moyne College,Syracuse, NY 13214-1399, or via e-mail: barnello@lemoyne.edu.

College & Undergraduate Libraries, Vol. 9(2) 2002http://www.haworthpressinc.com/store/product.asp?sku=J106

2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 1

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Just before Thanksgiving, 2001 Scott Carlson created a whirlwind ofcontroversy among academic librarians with his article “The Deserted Li-brary: As Students Work Online, Reading Rooms Empty Out–LeadingSome Campuses to Add Starbucks” (Carlson, 2001). The author was ap-parently trying to attract attention from campus administrators, and hefulfilled his purpose. Nevertheless, his piece probably generated morediscussion among librarians than it did among top administrators. Theirony is that the article did a much better job of reflecting today’s realityin academic libraries than its misleading headline did.

Librarians expressed concern about the article because they fearedcollege trustees and administrators would read only the headline anduse it as an excuse take an axe to library budgets. Many of us who dis-cussed the Carlson piece with our Presidents and Provosts needed toparaphrase Mark Twain–“the report of academic libraries’ death isgreatly exaggerated.” The reaction on my campus was a big yawn, be-cause my administration understands that, while library collections andservices are evolving, they remain just as fundamental to the college’smission as ever.

On most campuses, the library is a vibrant place. Academic learningcommunities cannot function without library resources and services.Students here at Denison and on many other campuses continue tolobby hard for longer library hours, despite the fact that our library is al-ready open 109 hours per week. They want libraries to be open longerhours, not because they have trouble accessing information from theirdorm rooms or apartments, but because students prefer libraries aboveany other location for serious study, research, and consultation with li-brarians. The bottom line is collections and services provided by aca-demic libraries are more necessary now than ever before, regardless ofwhere the content and services are delivered to users. Wise college pres-idents and provosts recognize that.

A close reading of Carlson reveals a pretty accurate description ofthe past decade’s dramatic changes in how users perform research. Italso illustrates clearly that the role of and funding for academic librariesremains fundamental on all campuses. For example, Carlson’s chartshowing library budget shifts at SUNY-Buffalo illustrates that onlineresources have not replaced most of the print resources libraries pur-chase to support their curricula. Rather, the online sources are an addi-tional expense. Contrary to popular opinion, scholarly online resourcesare NOT available free on the web. Meanwhile, libraries must continueto purchase the best possible selection of the hard copy monographs andserials that support the local curriculum. There has been no decline in

2 COLLEGE & UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARIES

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traditional publishing output with the advent of online resources. Infact, now that we’ve brought a world of resources to our users’ desktopsthrough OCLC’s Worldcat and other library catalogs, there have beenconcomitant increases in user demand for ready access to these re-sources (i.e., local purchase).

Even though some libraries’ gate counts and reference statistics aredeclining, that is not true for many college libraries, especially thosethat are beautiful, inspiring places that invite students and faculty tostay a while and read or meet with colleagues. An interesting factor re-cently documented among the “Barnes and Noble libraries” is that gatecounts are down in part because users leave and re-enter the library lessoften now that they don’t have to run out for a coffee break.

Nevertheless, if we look at two important measures of library usage,reference transactions and circulation from the general collection,Carlson’s premise does hold on average for the Oberlin Group of 75college libraries. Between academic years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001,the average number of traditional reference transactions among OberlinGroup libraries dropped from 238 in a typical week to 215. Likewise,average total circulation dropped for those years from 66,432 to 63,302.Yet for the same period, the average number of group transactions(classes taught) among these libraries rose from 113 classes to 118classes during the academic year. This increase in class sessions reflectsthe national trend toward librarians engaging in more in-depth teachingactivities. In addition, none of these statistics reflect the growing trendtoward intensive information literacy efforts on college campuseswherein librarians team-teach courses with classroom faculty, nor dothey account for “new” services such as online and e-mail reference.Beginning with fall semester, 2002, OhioLINK, Ohio’s statewide aca-demic library network, will launch a cooperative electronic referenceservice for all Ohio higher education students. It’s easy to imagine atime when we will help provide virtual reference services for libraries inAustralia and they will return the favor, providing full (virtual) refer-ence access 24/7.

Students and faculty are in fact using “the library” by searching vir-tual resources from their homes and offices, but they are still coming tothe physical library for traditional and innovative functions and ser-vices. This trend is reflected in the large number of new or renovatedcollege libraries that have been constructed over the past decade. Exam-ples of such libraries are included in several recent monographs, includ-ing: When change is set in stone: an analysis of seven academiclibraries designed by Perry Dean Rogers & Partners, architects

Consider This 3

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(Crosbie and Hickey, 2001). Furthermore, Princeton is currently build-ing a $60 million science library. This is especially ironic by Carlson’slogic because science literature is among the most digital of all disci-plines, making access to this information readily available anywhereusers happen to be. Why are colleges and universities continuing tobuild libraries? Simple, it is because the new buildings facilitate the li-brary’s role as a place for inquiry and intellectual discourse, as well asfor social interaction. Highly publicized attempts in the 1990s to createnew universities without physical libraries, such as California StateUniversity Monterey Bay and Florida Gulf Coast University, soonflopped. The institutions quickly had to face the reality that not all infor-mation is available online, and even information that is available onlinerequires an enormous amount of baby-sitting by librarians. Traditionallibraries were soon built at those institutions.

The important point for non-librarians to remember is that overalllibrary budget requirements continue to increase, whether or not usersphysically enter the library as often. Our constituents are using “the li-brary,” virtually and physically, now more than ever, and librarians areengaged in more teaching and consultation with users than ever before.

REFERENCES

Carlson, Scott. 16 November 2001 “The Deserted Library: As Students Work Online, Read-ing Rooms Empty Out–Leading Some Campuses to Add Starbucks.” The Chronicle ofHigher Education, 48: A35. <http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i12/12a03501.htm>.

Crosbie, Michael J. and Hickey, Damon D. 2001 When Change Is Set in Stone: AnAnalysis of Seven Academic Libraries Designed by Perry Dean Rogers & Partners,Architects. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.

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