Is There a Librarian in the House?
Beth Posner
As information storage becomes increasingly electronic, resources currently
used to physically maintain and access academic libraries will be needed to
defray the costs of maintaining and accessing online data. And, as more
information is available remotely, people will come to libraries less, so
academic librarians, in order to reach, teach, and serve their communities,
may need to leave libraries and set up shop in dorms and academic
departments. Such a scenario privileges librarian expertise over libraries,
highlighting their teaching role as they work more closely with patrons, and
enhancing their service role, by making the information seeking process more
convenient.
Beth Posner
Interlibrary Loan/Reference Librarian
Mina Rees Library
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 817-7051
bposner@gc.cuny.edu
Is There a Librarian in the House?
Academic libraries, like all libraries, were designed primarily to store, handle, and
retrieve paper copies of bound materials. Increasingly, however, computers are changing
the way most information is packaged. And many factors are now combining to increase
the pressure for, and utility of, remote access to online data, for both libraries and library
patrons. Traditional libraries face space limitations and the high costs of physically
expanding and maintaining existing spaces; technological advances and cost savings are
making computer storage of information relatively easy and cheap; and library patrons
with complicated, busy lives are demanding the time-saving convenience and ease of
access that computerized data allows.
How academic libraries look in ten years will, therefore, largely be dictated by the
properties of online data. Online data differs from its printed counterpart in many
respects, but the one most relevant to academic library patrons is how it is accessed. With
information available online, members of academic communities can, increasingly, work
completely outside traditional libraries. This serves a real need for patrons as they save
time and simplify their lives by working from their homes or offices, while
simultaneously helping librarians who are struggling to save space and money. (Although
some of the cost-savings of computerized information are still theoretical, in time,
savings should be realized.)
As people use online data more, and come to libraries less, libraries as great
public spaces will need to be re-imagined. Students and scholars are often better served
when they work in a library, so if academic library patrons continue to decrease their use
of academic libraries, the unfortunate losses this implies must be acknowledged and
countered. For instance, it is only in libraries that patrons can stroll through the stacks
and find interesting, unexpected information, but with experience in using keywords,
equally serendipitous discoveries can be made when searching electronic databases. It is
true that libraries offer a quiet place to study that also teems with the intensity of a
community of researchers, but reading rooms that provide a similar atmosphere can be
created in other places around campus, and the more spaces that support such activity, the
better for the quality of life in the institution as a whole. And, while there is still a great
deal of information available only in libraries, not online, increased attention to digitizing
historical material and making document delivery and interlibrary loan of physical
documents cost effective for publishers, libraries and patrons can alleviate this. Paper
copies of journals can be scanned and sent directly to people’s email and printed copies
of books can be delivered via mail or held at any central facility for pickup.
This is not to say that in ten years physical academic libraries will disappear.
Most will long remain, both as status symbols and as cost effective solutions to providing
information to academic communities. However, for many smaller college libraries, with
little or no endowment, already prohibitive costs will force changes in the next ten years.
One way that academic libraries might respond to the budgetary pressures,
changing information sources, lifestyle issues, etc. that are making it impossible to
preserve libraries-as-they-are, is to introduce a new component of academic library
service that exists completely outside library walls. Since one of the major losses of
decreased library use is decreased access to the skills and guidance of experienced
librarians, if people no longer come to libraries, librarians can best preserve their mission
of teaching and serving people by going directly to their patrons.
Academic libraries already offer desktop delivery of articles and remote access to
databases, as well as online reference services and tutorials, all of which are constantly
being improved as both librarians and patrons gain experience using them. Even the most
sophisticated of these services, however, offering complete back-runs of full-text sources
and streaming video and software to demonstrate real-time searches, cannot and should
not entirely replace the human contact between librarians and patrons. One-on-one, faceto-face reference interviews remain the best way to ascertain what information a person
truly needs and to determine when patrons truly understand and are satisfied with the
answers they have received.
To insure that this contact is maintained and enhanced for people who do not go
to libraries, imagine every dorm or academic building (if not department) having an
office or space for a librarian. This would make librarians more visible and accessible,
and allow them more opportunities to teach and make their services available when and
where needed. Librarians could also be assigned to students, much as there are now
academic and dorm advisors. Librarians assigned to dorms would be available to help
with recreational information needs, as well as education ones, thus taking advantage of
every teachable moment and incorporating information literacy into the everyday lives of
students. Librarians could even be assigned to live in dorms, in exchange for room and
board, so that they are truly available, visible, and a part of the college student’s world.
Resources now employed for buying books could be used for publisher payments for
electronic use or on-demand printing of items. Money now used for the security, heating
and air conditioning for buildings could be used to hire and deploy more librarians to
more places around campus.
As universities compete for students, how well they are served is arguably as
important as how well they are taught. Librarians both serve and teach by demonstrating
effective searching, introducing new information sources, and helping people to frame
queries. The professional expertise and interpersonal skills of librarians are invaluable in
a world where information overload threatens to overwhelm and dehumanize education
and life. Therefore, a focus on increasing the quality and quantity of interactions between
academic librarians and their community is a positive way to approach the future of
academic librarianship. Librarians, almost by definition, value libraries, but if patrons do
not, and libraries become too expensive to save, perhaps we can best serve patrons by
saving librarians, instead.