Tuesday, July 6, 2010

What is the future of academic libraries?

My boss brought the following article to my attention:

"2010 top ten trends in academic libraries: A review of the current literature." College & Research Libraries News 71.6 (2010): 286-92. OmniFile Full Text Mega. Web. 6 July 2010.

One of the points made in the article which I will quote:
"The definition of the library will change as physical space is repurposed and virtual space expands."

Much of the second and third floors of the NJIT Library is occupied by bound volumes of journals. The use of these materials is diminishing each year. Students made requests for group study rooms during the exam periods. Very often they must be turned away. I suggest that much of the bound periodicals be place in storage to create space for more group study rooms.

A much higher percentage of our resources are now available online, so there is less need to store physical resources. Faculty do encourage students to work together as teams, so I think we should allocate more space for group study. To quote the article again:

"The concept of Library as Place is still important to students, researchers, and faculty members. Some libraries have added writing, tutoring, and media centers to provide multiple academic support service in one convenient location.'

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