Librarian Perceptions of the Function of the Academic Library: Summer-Fall 2006

Kevin GuthrieRoger C. SchonfeldDecember 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 user-generated content alongside our scholarly materials (28%)

• Performing research and publishing the results in library and information science journals (20%)

The Library as the Gateway?

0%

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90%

100%

Maintaining a Comprehensive E-Catalog

A Gateway for Locating ScholarlyInformation

NowI n 5 Years

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…

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VS/S Medium VL/L

Now

In 5 Years

“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

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VS/S Medium VL/L

Now

In 5 Years

“How important are each of the following functions of the library?” Percent answering very or extremely important to “A Gateway for Locating Scholarly Information”

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Now In Five Years

VL/L CollectionDevelopers

VL/L LibraryDirectors

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

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Now In Five Years

VL/L CollectionDevelopers

VL/L LibraryDirectors

“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

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Regardless of howreliable and safe

electroniccollections of

journals may be, itwill always be

crucial for our libraryto maintain hard-copy versions of

journals

Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yet

Percent agreeing strongly with each statement

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Regardless of howreliable and safe

electroniccollections of

journals may be, itwill always be

crucial for our libraryto maintain hard-copy versions of

journals

Assuming thatelectronic

collections ofjournals are provento work well and arereadily accessible, Iwould be happy to

see hard- copycollections discarded

and replacedentirely byelectronic

Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yet

Percent agreeing strongly with each statement

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Regardless of howreliable and safe

electroniccollections of

journals may be, itwill always be

crucial for our libraryto maintain hard-copy versions of

journals

Assuming thatelectronic

collections ofjournals are provento work well and arereadily accessible, Iwould be happy to

see hard- copycollections discarded

and replacedentirely byelectronic

If our librarycancelled the

current issues of aprint version of a

journal butcontinued to make

them availableelectronically, thatwould be fine with

me

Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yet

Percent agreeing strongly with each statement

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Regardless of howreliable and safe

electroniccollections of

journals may be, itwill always be

crucial for our libraryto maintain hard-copy versions of

journals

Assuming thatelectronic

collections ofjournals are provento work well and arereadily accessible, Iwould be happy to

see hard- copycollections discarded

and replacedentirely byelectronic

If our librarycancelled the

current issues of aprint version of a

journal butcontinued to make

them availableelectronically, thatwould be fine with

me

In the near future, itwill no longer be

necessary for ourlibrary to maintainhard- copy versions

of journals

General Consistency Across Classes, but More Immediacy at the Universities

Percent agreeing strongly with each statement

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Regardless of howreliable and safe

electroniccollections of

journals may be, itwill always be

crucial for our libraryto maintain hard-copy versions of

journals

Assuming thatelectronic

collections ofjournals are provento work well and arereadily accessible, Iwould be happy to

see hard- copycollections discarded

and replacedentirely byelectronic

If our librarycancelled the

current issues of aprint version of a

journal butcontinued to make

them availableelectronically, thatwould be fine with

me

In the near future, itwill no longer be

necessary for ourlibrary to maintainhard- copy versions

of journals

Very Small/Small

Medium

Very Large/Large

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

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Preserving traditional libraryresources, ie. Print

Ensuring availability of hard-copyjournals

NowI n 5 Years

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

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VS/S Medium VL/L

Now

In 5 Years

“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

0%

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Now In Five Years

VL/L CollectionDevelopers

VL/L LibraryDirectors

“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

0%

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VS/S Medium VL/L

Now

In 5 Years

“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

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Now In Five Years

VL/L CollectionDevelopers

VL/L LibraryDirectors

“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

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Now

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“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”

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Now In Five Years

VL/L CollectionDevelopers

VL/L LibraryDirectors

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…

0%

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100%

E-books are going totransform the libraryrole for monographs

at least as much as e-journals have done for

serials

E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative…

0%

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100%

E-books are going totransform the libraryrole for monographs

at least as much as e-journals have done for

serials

E-books will not be asufficient substititutefor print books formany of our faculty

and students

E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative…

0%

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100%

E-books are going totransform the libraryrole for monographs

at least as much as e-journals have done for

serials

E-books will not be asufficient substititutefor print books formany of our faculty

and students

Library Function Now:Licensing collections ofelectronic books andfacilitating access tothem for our readers

E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative…

0%

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60%

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80%

90%

100%

E-books are going totransform the libraryrole for monographs

at least as much as e-journals have done for

serials

E-books will not be asufficient substititutefor print books for

many of our facultyand students

Library Function Now:Licensing collections ofelectronic books andfacilitating access tothem for our readers

Library Function in 5Years: Licensing

collections ofelectronic books andfacilitating access tothem for our readers

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

0%

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E-books are going totransform the library

role for monographs atleast as much as e-

journals have done forserials

E-books will not be asufficient substititutefor print books for

many of our facultyand students

Library Function Now:Licensing collections ofelectronic books andfacilitating access tothem for our readers

Library Function in 5Years: Licensing

collections of electronicbooks and facilitating

access to them for ourreaders

VerySmall/ Small

Medium

VeryLarge/ Large

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

0%

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VS/S Medium VL/L

Yet in Terms of Importance, the Variation across Institutions Is Modest

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Now

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“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 PublishingOf 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”

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

VS/S Medium VL/L

Journal Content Is Held in Universities’ Repositories

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100%

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Current Issuesof ScholarlyJournals

Back Issues ofScholarlyJournals

Postprints ofArticles byYour Faculty

Preprints ofArticles byYour Faculty

Images Lead in “Multimedia” Holdings

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Images (eg artand artifacts)

Audio (eginterviews andspeeches)

Video (egperformancesand speeches)

Music andmusicalperformances

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

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SpecialCollections andOther Rare orUniqueMaterials

Scholarly orprimary sourcespertaining toyourinstitution’sregion or locale

Datasets Have Yet to Make Much of an Impact

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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 GuthrieRoger C. SchonfeldDecember 4, 2006

kg@ithaka.org(212) 500-2600

rcs@ithaka.org(212) 500-2338