 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Packing Up the Books
Thursday, June 30, at 1 p.m., U.S. Eastern time
The University of Texas at Austin is clearing nearly all of the books out of its undergraduate library this summer to make room for an information commons where students can collaborate with classmates on multimedia projects, consult with Internet-savvy librarians, and check out laptop computers. Texas is just one of several universities and colleges storing journals off-site, digitizing books, or sharing volumes with nearby institutions to free up space for computers and technology services.
Critics worry that all of the money being spent on digital libraries leaves less money for books, and that the days when scholars or students could wander through the stacks making unexpected discoveries may be numbered. But some librarians say that the explosion of information makes the move toward bookless libraries inevitable, and that digital libraries allow students to be more actively engaged in their studies.
In their eagerness to embrace the digital age, do librarians risk neglecting important collections? What is gained, and what is lost, when students obtain most of their information via computer? As long as books can still be obtained digitally or overnight through interlibrary loan, don't students and scholars have the best of both worlds?
» Packing Up the Books (7/1/2005)
Frances J. Maloy is president of the Association of College and Research Libraries and is division leader of access services at Emory University.
Jeff Young (Moderator):
Good afternoon, and welcome to our live discussion about the the future of campus libraries. Our article this week has sparked quite a bit of interest, and we've received many questions and comments in advance (please send your questions along if you haven't already), so this should be a lively chat.
Our guest today is Frances J. Maloy, past president of the Association of College and Research Libraries and division leader of access services at Emory University. Thanks for joining us Frances.
Frances J. Maloy:
I am pleased to be here and look forward to an interesting exchange.
Question from Steve Baker, Union University:
What do you think about the University of Michigan plan to focus their collection development on special/graduate collections and use GooglePrint for its undergraduate collection?
Frances J. Maloy:
I haven't spoken directly to anyone at UMich about this idea yet so I hesitate to speak directly to it. Generally speaking however, I do know that many research institutions have been discussing this for a while (5-10yrs) as a strategy to bring distinction to both the library and the university.
I also know from talking to leaders at UMich informally, that they are looking for a new model of collection development - one where the distinctive materials are the focus of the on site collection and the duplicative materials are either electronic or in a consortium.
I think it is an interesting idea. I think that there will always be a need for a core book collection for undergrads. Whether or not today's undergrads and the ones in 5 years will want to read the book in paper or print is to be tested.
Question from David Gansz, Dean for Learning Support and Information Systems, Edison State Community College, Piqua, Ohio:
How, in the newly configured 'information commons' environment, does the institution of higher learning preserve the 'sacred space' of the traditional Library setting, maintaining an aura of reverent silence when intellectual content is no longer embodied in books but, instead, has evaporated, as it were, into the electronic cyberspace?
Frances J. Maloy:
I love your question- you are getting at one of the key values of a library. At Emory, and other places - NYPL, Columbia - we rennovated our traditional reading room into such a place. Our grad students in particular just love it.
I think the key here is variety of types of spaces in the library- noisy interaction areas, social spaces, computers, and quiet contemplative places.
Of course with wireless, students will bring their hand held devises anywhere but perhaps these are quieter than the traditional keyboard.
Question from John Laudun, University of Louisiana:
The problem, as I have encountered it, is that libraries too often out-source such efforts to third-parties who usually charge a subscription fee. End of subscription, no more books on the "virtual" shelves. This is already the case with journals, leading to the sudden disappearance of entire "virtual floors" of journals from one's area of study. How do those who argue for digitizing practically everything propose to remedy what is already a curse? (Let me be clear: I am an enthusiast of such efforts, but I have been burned too many times by the sudden loss of materials, or, worse, the inability to get to some materials because they belong to a competing database and your library can't afford both. Argh!)
Frances J. Maloy:
I agree that it is vitally important for libraries to retain an archive of their materials. In most cases, this is happening, but I am sure in some it does not. At Emory, we are moving to storage, as opposed to discarding, print volumes of journals we have in electronic form. Some library consortia are discussing how to collectively manage 1 print run of a journal as the archive for its members.
Comment from Ed Merwin, Jr., Univ. of South Carolina Salkehatchie:
I have been a citizen of libraryland for 32 years. I can remember discussing the "death of the book" with faculty shortly after my graduation in 1973. I believe the book has a long, productive life yet ahead, in the humanities and social sciences. Cutting edge technology is NOT critical in these areas. Science, medicine, engineering, because of the need for currency, are another matter.
Sincerely,
Ed Merwin, Jr.
Associate Professor/Assistant Librarian
Question from Ife Modupe, small community college:
For libraries interested in greater digitization, what are some of the digital and multi-media "must-have's?"
Frances J. Maloy:
Great question but I don't have the answer since I am not in collection managment. I do know that in September 06, CHOICE magazine and BOWKER publishers will be publishing an updated Books for College LIbraries called Resources for College Libraries. This product will cover both print and electronic databases and books.
Comment from Jean Crampon, USC:
We have an undergraduate commons, maybe the first, in our Leavey Teaching Library which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. It has been wildly successful, but I think one of its benefits is the variety of spaces that have been created: single computer access with help for both the technology and the resources, teaching spaces for classes, collaborative work rooms, book stacks and quiet areas for study. Yes, they still have a book collection. People go from there to the specialized subject libraries or request from storage or ILL. Storage response is within 24 hours, so good.
We are investigating putting commons in some of the subject area libraries, but it hasn't happened yet. Has anyone done that successfully?
Question from Jim, small rural community college:
I suspect that [student Internet use] is more recreational, percentage wise, than it is academic. So, are we clearing out the books to provide students with primarily "fun" activities, with academic use being a secondary consideration?
Frances J. Maloy:
No. During the semesters when papers are due, the info commons is packed day and night. During other times of the year, what I see when I walk through our info commons is some emailling, some sleeping, some socializing, but mostly students engaged in research and writting. Students today are great multi-taskers -- so they are most likely doing all of the activities mentioned above at the same time.
Question from Lea Wells, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE:
How are staffing patterns changing to meet the needs of the "information commons" library?
Frances J. Maloy:
Great question- see if the web site I just posted will help you.
I can tell you that at the few infocommons I have visited or talked with librarians about, we all do similar things. We typically have a reference librarian and a student assistant staffing the desk. The student assistant is trained in the technical issues about the computer and the librarian handles the content type questions.
I know some places have their IT professionals help staff the desk too a few hours a week.
Comment from roger horn, clarion, PA (retired):
And what else is new? Long before I retired as a reference librarian (1998)I noticed that the sort of people who want to be administrators have little allegiance to books or about anything except career advancement. As one sourthern Ohio politician was quoted anent jumping on the John Glenn bandwagon (way back then), he'd never seen a bandwagon too high to climb. Going into another line of work (out of being a kinda-sorta librarian) to the host of a computers and coffee service is easy enough if you want to get ahead. As one administrator said to me after a series of inane changes "They [higher administrators]want to see you making changes".
Question from Maryann Readal, North Harris College, community college:
Hi, What evidence do we have through studies, statistics, etc. that show that students prefer electronic books to the paper? Are we rushing into something that is a fad?
Frances J. Maloy:
This is a great question. I know there have been some articles published on this issue. Electronic books have been in libraries for several years now. It is a question -- will students read a book online?
What we see with reserve use is that students typically print out the article to keep as a reference. Whether they also read the article from the screen, I don't know.
For myself, I will scan a book online and then if I want to read it, I print it out. Short news articles I read online and only print it out for reference.
On the ACRL Board, we have 13 middle aged librarians. Only 1 has chosen to read all her board documents electronically on her laptop. The rest of us go to the expense and trouble of printing the documents off and carrying them around with us.
Is she unusual or an early adopter -- I just don't know.
Question from Beth Simon, Univ of California San Diego:
What are some of the best practices you know of in terms of educating students (and everyone) about trustworthiness of web-based content? As more and more peer-reviewed content moves online, what efforts and programs are in place to help students move into a critical mode when evaluating internet-served content?
Frances J. Maloy:
I am not an instruction librarian so I don't know the specifics of the answer to this question. I know ACRL has done a lot of work in this area, see the following web sites: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.htm
This is a very important issue.
Comment from Gene Cittadino, New York University:
Anyone who has done research by quietly browsing the stacks and reading books and bound volumes of journals understands this as a vibrant, positive experience, but in articles discussing the elimination of books in college libraries this experience is commonly characterized by the librarians interviewed as though it were something to be enjoyed only by some sort of antiquarian fetishist (as in the recent Chronicle story: "musty, dog-eared texts," "librarian in a bun and sensible shoes telling people to be quiet"). As a teacher and scholar, I want undergraduates to have this experience and think of it as positive. I don't discourage internet research, but I do encourage students to get into the library and peruse the stacks, since this experience cannot possibly be duplicated in front of a computer screen. I'm concerned that librarians are now trained to associate research entirely with the internet and even to have a disdain for the kind of scholarship that is centered on books and the printed page. Is this the case or is there no cause for alarm?
Question from :
What is the life span of digital information?
Frances J. Maloy:
Do you mean the physical tape, disc, the material is on? I don't know. I do know that long term preservation of this material is a big issue in libraries and we are working hard on developing a plan that works.
Comment from Anne Lynch, Leavey Library, Univ. of Southern California:
While we were a very earlier adopter of the Information Commons model, we by no means think the book is a dying format. We support a blended environment wherein students have ready access to both print and electronic information and they are encouraged to become comfortable using whichever format is most appropriate for their learning needs. The IC, however, does provide an excellent location for gathering feedback on student preferences and how they use the resources and interfaces we are providing.
Comment from Indu Aggarwal:
Perhaps Information Commons is the way to go. Academic libraries are always trying to find ways to increase usage. Have those libraries that have Information Commons found an increase in usage of library resources and services?
Comment from Ed Urbansky , USAF & adjunct Pensacola Jr College:
I prefer to peruse bookshelves looking for related material. It's a matter of collection selectors having done a level of quality control and perhaps also having chosen tightly related volumes that work in concert. Most of that organizational knowledge is lost in an electronic medium, even though there are, for example, features such as Amazon's "other people who bought this also bought...."
Question from Kevin, Drexel University Library Student:
The multi-tasking you mentioned is a great skill and worthy of being developed however I wonder about the ease of use in directly identifying an information bit for a paper or other project without the type of linear reading and research demanded by paper resources which forces the student to understand the context of the information bit.
Frances J. Maloy:
I agree that this is a challenge both to the reader and the creator in the digital age. I hope that curiousity for the subject will keep the student reading more than less in the source.
Comment from Beth Simon, Univ of California, San Diego:
In response to the question about reading text/books online: One interesting advance in technology is the Tablet PC. Tablet PC's enable one to read and mark on a document with a pen (like a large stylus). I read all my technical papers on a Tablet now, highlight them and write my notes in red "ink". I don't lose valuably marked up papers. Also, many tablets are developed with reading in mind -- smaller, with a rotated screen capability for "page sized" reading, etc.
This doesn't mean I have completely given up paper -- marking a multipage draft is still easier on paper, but I feel little difference from reading a book -- especially with "paperback"-sized tablets.
Comment from Rebecca K. Friedman, The Bard Graduate Center:
I would have to agree with Gene from NYU's comment - how do we encourage students to turn away from the Internet and see the alternative (research, reading, and study IN the library) as a viable one? Isn't it the case in the humanities, still, that research is largely done the "old-fashioned" way? I think that humanities librarians are uniquely positioned between these two worlds and am curious to see what will happen down the road. Aren't some of the recent Google initiatives meant to ultimately lead Internet searchers BACK to the library collections they will find there (in some form or another)? Great discussion.
Comment from Jim Fisk, Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa:
Currently, our library is undergoing renovation, which includes the addition of a coffee shop. Also, our Academic Support Services is moving to the library. Would those of you have undergone similar changes care to comment on your experience? We would be especially interested in comments on changes in library usage or increase in interaction among faculty, staff, and students.
Question from Jill Carraway - Wake Forest University:
Many universities serve their extended community in various ways. Does the information commons create a barrier to this kind of traditional service to walk-in visitors ?
Frances J. Maloy:
It depends on how the library has chosen to set up their information commons. It also depends on how the library negotiates contracts for detabases with vendors. In Georgia, with Galileo - a state run and funded library initiative, all Georgians are able to search databases purchased through Galileo.
Comment from Andrew Bonamici, University of Oregon:
Thanks for hosting this colloquy. Two comments/questions:
First, offsite storage isn't a passing fad for research libraries, and addresses important goals in addition to "making room for information commons.". The Harvard Model high-density storage concept has been refined over decades as a cost-effective approach to maintaining selected collections of low-use (but still important) materials. These facilities are highly climate controlled so also offer preservation benefits.
Second, are others seeing the term "information commons" fading in favor of the more academically-focused "learning commons?" This is an important conceptual shift. The term "learning commons" helps reinforce the need for these programs to span beyond libraries & computing centers to engage academic departments, student services, advising, etc. as key stakeholders.
Comment from Jean Crampon, USC:
Does anyone have a GOOD way of doing that wonderful serendipitous shelf browsing that used to be so common? I haven't figured out how to browse all the electronic journal resources. That concerns me as we have more material electronically and don't have the print issue for browsing. It seems harder to explain that this is still important, especially for multidisciplinary research. Some students appear never to have tried this except for "light reading" needs. I don't think the Commons has anything to do with the issue specifically, since the electronic journals are available anywhere there is a computer connection.
Comment from Louise Deis, Princeton University:
Does anyone who runs an information commons have sort of a roving librarian? That is, instead of the librarian only sitting at a Reference or Information Desk, he/she would periodically visit computer users asking, "Are you finding everything you need?" (Idea from David Goodman.)
Question from Scott Cohen, Jackson State Community College, Tennessee:
Instead of getting rid of all the books, couldn't the undergraduate library at least have kept recreational reading collection? Isn't it shortsighted to get rid completely of a particular medium? I applaud the "commons" idea, but wish that books could have remained.
Frances J. Maloy:
I don't know the specifics of what went into the decision to remove almost the entire book collection. When I searched the undergrad library web site earlier this spring, they had a wonderful reader advisory page recommending current fiction and non-fiction. The recommendations came from librarians, faculty and students. This is another great way to encourage reading.
Comment from Sherry Gelbwasser, Asnuntuck Community College, Enfield, Connecticut:
Are librarians in the habit of embracing passing fads? No. I do not think so. With budgets as low as they are today and people relying on technology to communicate all over the world, it is likely that storing what is impossible to store digitally on site and then making the rest of the collection accessible online is the only way for information professionals to "dog paddle in rough waters". Complicating matters is this is becoming an increasingly "green" nation. The less paper we use, the better our environment will be. Perhaps going the digit route is merely a practical way for librarians to meet the needs and the morals of the widest possible audience.
Comment from Dan Updegrove, UT Austin:
Colleagues, I have just joined the conversation, and wanted to provide an oppportunity to answer any questions about our plans for the ongoing conversion of the Flawn Academic Center from a rather traditional undergraduate library to an information commons.
Comment from Janis Bandelin, Director of Libraries, Furman University:
I understand the pressure that larger libraries (like UT Austin) are under to create the kind of learning environment that will meet the needs of undergraduate students today. Books are being removed from the undergrad library but are still accessible-- although it will take more student effort to seek them out.
Here at Furman (with an undergrad student population of 2800), we were fortunate to be able to expand our building and completely renovate it. We have all the books (with an estimated 40 years growth), 24 group study rooms, 90 computers plus wireless throughout, a 24/7 study and computing area and a variety of furniture and study spaces to meet a variety of learning needs. However, I realize that not all institutions can do this. The old library was on a site that could be expanded, there was a shared vision campus-wide about what was needed to transform student learning, and there was a commitment and enthusiasm from our donors. Not every institution is so fortunate.
I think the larger institutional libraries have to make difficult decisions given the fiscal realities. Creating an information commons without books (or with few) is an effort to work within certain realities.
Question from Muhammad al-Faruque, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
In our process of making a bookless library what do you think we are leaving for posterity? We inherited ancient civilizations – Greek, Roman, Muslim, etc. – through their written heritage on hard media (paper and others). Hard media, as we know, last for long long time. What would happen about the soft media the technology for which changes every five/ten years? Doesn’t it make us worried when we think from civilizational perspective?
Frances J. Maloy:
There were similar questions earlier in the exchange. Preservation of our cultural record is of primary importance to libraries. We are very concerned about this and working hard on what the best answer is.
The current model is that every individual library in the world preserve individual copies of materials for themselves.
This is an expensive and redundant model. Redundancy is good for the long term so we don't want to get rid of redundancy completely but do we need 100 copies of the same book? 50 copies? 10 copies seems not enough to me but 50 may be too much. What about journal runs -- how do we insure that we have a complete run of every issue and every article in every issue? This means checking page by page. Some places are doing it and agreeing to keep just the one run so that others in the consortium can withdraw their incomplete run.
Comment from Paul, Midwest liberal arts college:
As libraries take more steps to make their resources available through electronic media, there still is and will always be the need to educate our students in the value and in the strategies to use print resources effectively. I have much first-hand experience with the phenomenon of current undergraduate students who are clueless when confronted with the necessity and the uncompromising circumstances of delving into print materials for research. I believe librarians must keep themselves well-versed in helping their users navigate the informational waters of both print and electronic media. As I experience increasing numbers of students who have not had to hunt down an article or book in print format while in high school, I see a real onus mounting on teaching faculty to be certain to require print resources in their assignments. It is hard to imagine any students who aspire to be leaders in their fields to have no idea of how to access the key literature of their disciplines from the 20th century and earlier. To be truly educated, students must know how to perform research with both print and electronic materials.
Thank you.
Comment from Maureen Eggert - Wake Forest Law School:
In repy to Gene fro NY, librarians vary from mega-geeks to technophobes with all gradations in between. We do get feed a steady diet of doom & gloom for the profession articles, telling us that if we don't "embrace technology" and become geek leaders we will find ourselves at the side of the road with "will research for food signs." However, I beleive that moderation will prevail. I expect we will be moving more & more to digital formats but most of us know that is still a need for print materials and it is part of our jobs to explain when to use print v. digital(and I agree with you - sometimes nothing beats the serandipity of browsing) This will continue to change but I'm hoping that other moderates like myself will change when it benefits the library and the patrons & not becuse it is trendy to do so
Question from Karen, small college library:
Are any small college libraries doing this? I mean colleges with only 1 library.
Frances J. Maloy:
See the web site I suggested earlier about infocommons and you can browse the list.
However, if you mean by "this"- removing all the books from the library and replacing them with computers- no, I don't know of any library doing that. I know that many places had to put older, little used materials in storage of some sort (either in the basement - still browsable to the public or in an off site facility), but still kept the vast majority of their print collections and added spaces for computers.
Comment from Mitch Davis, Bowdoin College:
I still don't understand how this helps to serve a very mobile group of students who almost all have laptops. Are institutions/libraries building White Elephants that will need to be maintained well into the future. If you have the space, time and funds to build wired coffee houses then enjoy. Don't you think that effectively monitoring how books are being used and moving new ones in and old ones out is a better solution? Libaries should be more engaged in managing the flow of relavent information rather than throwing in the towel to the Internet.
Comment from Ed Urbansky , USAF & adjunct Pensacola Jr College:
As long as I have been alive, libraries have been expanding their services to incorporate conference rooms, meeting rooms, computer labs, online resources, and other references besides books and journals. My concern with terms such as "information commons" and "learning commons" is that we are actually muddying up the role of the library. Good libraries should be in tune with the academic departments and providing needed services. PJC calls its library the "Learning Resource Center." I have no idea what that means. When one enters, one is struck by how much it resembles a library. I am sure, however, that it is quite different in many respects from the library at Alexandria. All the students call it the library. There is value in using words that we all know rather some term that may be fleeting or ambiguous. At PJC there is also a Learning Help Center, which is the tutoring area. Some students have spent hours wandering around the library looking for the help center while others have spent hours wondering where the books were....
Question from Xin Li, Cornell:
Google Print and the Million Book Project have raised the bar for library delivery. As a result, users will have confirmed their expectation to have monographs and serials alike accessed speedily at the time and place of their choosing. We all know many of our print treasures are held at off-site facilities in print that won't be digitized for a while. What are some of the creative ways for off-site facilities to balance the physical and electronic document deliveries and do so at speeds that are measured against that of online resources?
Frances J. Maloy:
Great question. I have heard that some off-storage sites have been able to digitize on demand fast enough to satisfy faculty and students - Princeton, Columbia and NYPL have a joint off-storage site where they do this for example. http://recap1.princeton.edu/about/general.html I have never visited the site but have spoken with librarians from Columbia about it and they confirm that their faculty and students are quite pleased. The challenge at Columbia was - if you want me to buy new books, we need to put some old ones in storage. We'll give you access to the books electronically or by physical delivery. Apparently the electronic delivery is very popular. I don't know if they are scanning the entire book or just a chapter or article. (within copyright restrictions of course).
Comment from Oakley Coburn, Wofford College:
Much of the discussion, both today and in the literature for some years past, has been dealing with the notion of print and electronic, as a matter of degrees. We mourn the passing of the book, we look with some (justified) skepticism) at reliance on electronic media alone. Yet, for most of us, in libraries which are not comprehensive collections, we still maintain both sorts of collections and electronic collections have helped us to expand our offerings -- while we deal with the concern to trying to find the most appropriate information for each student and each reference question -- admittedly a difficult balance.
Comment from Dan Updegrove, UT Austin:
We are somewhat concerned with the mis-characterization of the situation here. There are some 16 library facilities on the main campus, all of which are open stack. Of the 8.3 million volumes in the collection, essentially all that are likely to be of interest to undergrads are in these open stacks. Moreover, most of the titles in the comparatively minuscule UGL collection were replicated elsewhere in open stacks. We do not believe we have made it more difficult for undergrads to locate, read, and check out books. Based on circulation data, it became increasingly clear that a separate collection of fewer than 100,000 volumes doesn't serve well an undergrad population of 36,000.
Comment from Rochelle Elstein, Northwestern.University:
Information retrieval is fine for certain educational tasks but how do students learn to write accurately and gracefully unless they read? The best "delivery system" for reading is a book, not a computer monitor.
Question from David Gansz, Edison State Community College:
Many of us seem to be asking the same question: Has Internet floundering replaced the lost art of browsing? Has electronic information devalued its content by removing itself from the context of physical proximity?
Frances J. Maloy:
Many of you are commenting on the issue of browsing. It is an important one and it is a research tool important to us all. ACRL will be instituting a Blog shortly and I will suggest this as a topic for discussion.
Jeff Young (Moderator):
Looks like we've run out of time for today. Thanks to everyone for the lively comments and questions. And thanks to Frances Maloy for being our guest today.
Frances J. Maloy:
Thanks so much for your great comments and questions on this important topic.