The future of research libraries

Interesting predictionsby the ARL:

“Although the purpose of academic and research library collections remains the same – to support the creation and dissemination of new knowledge – the nature of collections is moving away from ‘local’ to collaborative and multi-institutional.  New forms of scholarship are transforming user expectations for broad, barrier free collection discovery and access.  Libraries must transform their approaches to meet new user demands.”

Some suggestions:

Key findings – the research environment

• Global/interdisciplinary research will grow
• Open content will proliferate

Key findings – the future of libraries

• Researchers must understand intellectual property frameworks – libraries can provide support
• Other new roles for research libraries include: digital preservation and data management experts and as supporters helping researchers collaborate even more
• There will also be roles to support the open content movement
• Metrics about value to the research community must be improved
• Resources will increasingly be allocated to the development of tools
• There will continue to be moves to providing just in time services rather than building just in case collections

Reported by the Information Today Europe blog, Research libraries in the 21st century, 21 may 2012, Available from: http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2012/05/22/reserach-libraries-in-the-21st-century/ [Accessed 23 May 2012]

 

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