Librarian Perceptions of the Function of the Academic

Librarian Perceptions of the Function of the Academic Library: Summer-Fall 2006 Kevin Guthrie Roger C. Schonfeld December 4, 2006

Who did we ask? • Collection development directors • We also surveyed library directors at research universities; such responses are used for comparison purposes • US only • Colleges and universities that grant the Bachelor’s Degree or higher

The Respondents Surveys were completed by the following individuals: Institutional Size (JSTOR Pricing Classification): Total Number of Institutions Collection Development Director Respondents Library Director Respondents Very Large and Large (research universities) 176 66 25 Medium (teaching universities) 495 107 N/A Small and Very Small (colleges) 731 175 N/A TOTAL 1402 348 25

Level of Importance Assigned to Library Functions

At your institution, how important are each of the following functions of the library? Five functions are viewed as very important by more than 80% of respondents: • Maintaining a comprehensive electronic catalog of the library’s collection • Purchasing/licensing electronic research resources and making them available to faculty and students • Being a starting point or gateway for locating scholarly information • Working with faculty to incorporate information resources into their lectures and curricula • Partnering with faculty to promote more efficient and effective use of electronic research resources

At your institution, how important are each of the following functions of the library? Five functions are viewed as very important by less than 30% of respondents: • Helping researchers to manage datasets and other research byproducts (28%) • Facilitating access to wikis, blogs, podcasts and other usergenerated content alongside our scholarly materials (28%) • Performing research and publishing the results in library and information science journals (20%)

The Library as the Gateway?

Gateway Functions Are Seen to Decline Modestly “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important

Comprehensive Cataloging Is Less Important and Declining More Rapidly at Universities… “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “Maintaining a Comprehensive E-Catalog”

…Similarly, Serving as a Gateway Is Less Important and Declining More Rapidly at Universities “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “A Gateway for Locating Scholarly Information”

At Universities, Library Directors See Less Decline as a Gateway… “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “A Gateway for Locating Scholarly Information”

…And Similarly See Less Decline for Comprehensive Cataloging “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “Maintaining a Comprehensive E-Catalog”

A Decline in the Gateway Function? • Why do library leaders not perceive a significant decline in the gateway functions? • Would such a decline in the gateway function be a strategic shift? • How should libraries plan to manage this strategic shift, if in fact it is anticipated?

Transitioning to an Electronic-Only Journals Environment

Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yet Percent agreeing strongly with each statement

General Consistency Across Classes, but More Immediacy at the Universities Percent agreeing strongly with each statement

Anticipating the Transition? • Librarians anticipate a major transition, but is it coming sooner than they realize? • Why do the research universities anticipate this transition sooner than the colleges and teaching universities? • How should libraries plan for and manage this transition?

Preservation and Archiving

Library Functions Now and Five Years from Now “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important

Print Preservation Is More Important at Smaller Institutions “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “preserving traditional library resources (e. g. hard copies, reference materials and periodicals)”

Library Directors View Print Preservation as More Important, but All Perceive It to Be in Decline “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “preserving traditional library resources (e. g. hard copies, reference materials and periodicals)”

Local Hard-Copies Are Declining in Importance at the Universities “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “Ensuring the continued availability of our local hard-copy collections of scholarly journals”

But at Universities, Library Directors Do Not See a Decline in the Importance of Local Hard-Copies “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “Ensuring the continued availability of our local hard-copy collections of scholarly journals”

For Electronic-Archiving, the Pattern Is Reversed “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “Ensuring that electronic scholarly journals are carefully archived and available for the long-term”

At Universities, Library Directors See the Importance of Electronic Archiving Today… “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” Percent answering very or extremely important to “ensuring that electronic scholarly journals are carefully archived and available for the long-term”

Preservation • The importance of hard-copies, and the importance of their preservation, are in decline, especially at the universities • They are beginning to become more focused on preservation of electronic materials • How should this shift be managed strategically, to avoid some of the challenges that arose from the massive reformatting of newspaper collections?

The Future of Books

E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative…

…Although There Is More Enthusiasm for E-Books at Research Universities

The Future of E-Books • E-Books are not yet seen as transformative, so why is the importance of collecting e-books not lower today and also expected to grow significantly over the next five years? • Is the relatively higher enthusiasm for e-books at the universities a harbinger of the new order – or are the research libraries out of touch? • If e-books will prove to be transformative, or at least of growing importance, how should their development and role be managed? If they will not, how should enthusiasm for them be contained?

Digital Repositories

Existence of Digital Repositories Some colleges and universities are creating digital repositories to store, archive, and/or make available certain kinds of scholarly information, which are sometimes called institutional repositories or digital asset management systems. Does your institution have such a digital repository for any kind of scholarly material?

Repositories Are Most Widely Available at Universities

Yet in Terms of Importance, the Variation across Institutions Is Modest “How important are each of the following functions of the library? ” “Maintaining our institutional repository and other campus systems containing electronic research resources. ” Percent answering very or extremely important

The Goals that Exist for These Repositories • Top goal: Archiving and preserving your institutions intellectual assets (87% view it as very important) • Maintaining an organized collection of your institutions intellectual assets (79%) • Promoting the knowledge generated at your institution for external scholars and readers (72%) • Promoting the knowledge generated at your institution for your own scholars and students (71%) • Ensuring that scholars have a location to deposit materials that they create in the course of their research (60%) • Contributing to the creation of a new framework for scholarly communication, in place of the existing system of publishers (47%)

And Universities Are Most Interested in Changing Scholarly Publishing Of institutions with repositories, importance of “Contributing to the creation of new framework for scholarly communication, in place of the existing system of publishers”: Percent responding “very important”

Journal Content Is Held in Universities’ Repositories

Images Lead in “Multimedia” Holdings

Special Collections Are Very Important, but Local Collections Are More Important at Larger Institutions

Datasets Have Yet to Make Much of an Impact

The Future of Repositories • Repositories are far more common at universities than at smaller schools, although there is widespread interest in them • Their main use to date is for images and special collections, where there is significant interest in sharing these materials across institutions • This fits with the goals that exist for these repositories, which are to control and preserve the institution’s intellectual assets and locally-generated knowledge • How should repositories be managed and when should they be managed on a cross-institutional basis?

Some Questions for Discussion

Some Questions for Discussion • The Library as the Gateway? • If the gateway role is in decline, should libraries manage a strategic retreat or mount a counterattack? • Transitioning to an Electronic-Only Journals Environment • Is the transition happening sooner than is realized and how should it be managed? • Preservation and Archiving • How will the system meet its responsibilities for print preservation while attention is focusing, appropriately, on electronic-archiving? • The Future of Books • If librarians are correct in seeing e-books as over-hyped, how can they avoid adding another expensive function to their portfolios? • Repositories • How should repositories fit into library strategic planning, given the desire to focus on institutional knowledge assets?

Librarian Perceptions of the Function of the Academic Library: Summer-Fall 2006 Kevin Guthrie Roger C. Schonfeld December 4, 2006 kg@ithaka. org (212) 500 -2600 rcs@ithaka. org (212) 500 -2338