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

1. Librarian Perceptions of the Function of the Academic Library: Summer-Fall 2006Kevin GuthrieRoger C. SchonfeldDecember 4, 2006

2. 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

3. The Respondents Surveys were completed by the following individuals:

4. Level of Importance Assigned to Library Functions

5. 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

6. At your institution, how important are each of the following functions of the library? Three 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%)

7. The Library as the Gateway?

8. Gateway Functions Are Seen to Decline Modestly

9. Comprehensive Cataloging Is Less Important and Declining More Rapidly at Universities�

10. �Similarly, Serving as a Gateway Is Less Important and Declining More Rapidly at Universities

11. At Universities, Library Directors See Less Decline as a Gateway�

12. �And Similarly See Less Decline for Comprehensive Cataloging

13. 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?

14. Transitioning to an Electronic-Only Journals Environment

15. Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement

16. Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement

17. Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement

18. Librarians are ready for the transition to an electronic environment but are not quite there yetPercent agreeing strongly with each statement

19. General Consistency Across Classes, but More Immediacy at the UniversitiesPercent agreeing strongly with each statement

20. 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?

21. Preservation and Archiving

22. Library Functions Now and Five Years from Now

23. Print Preservation Is More Important at Smaller Institutions

24. Library Directors View Print Preservation as More Important, but All Perceive It to Be in Decline

25. Local Hard-Copies Are Declining in Importance at the Universities

26. But at Universities, Library Directors Do Not See a Decline in the Importance of Local Hard-Copies

27. For Electronic-Archiving, the Pattern Is Reversed

28. At Universities, Library Directors See the Importance of Electronic Archiving Today�

29. 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?

30. The Future of Books

31. E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative�

32. E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative�

33. E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative�

34. E-Books Are Not Seen As Transformative�

35. �Although There Is More Enthusiasm for E-Books at Research Universities

36. 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?

37. Digital Repositories

38. 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?

39. Repositories Are Most Widely Available at Universities

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

41. 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%)

42. 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�

43. Journal Content Is Held in Universities� Repositories

44. Images Lead in �Multimedia� Holdings

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

46. Datasets Have Yet to Make Much of an Impact

47. 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?

48. Some Questions for Discussion

49. 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?

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