Changing nature of university libraries
Sunday, 9 September 2007
AIM Jakaria Rahman and Momena Khatun
OVER the last decade, there have been several radical changes in the operational environment of university libraries in Bangladesh, in particular the growth of information. It seems that not only the volume of the traditional ways of publishing have increased steadily, but also the possibilities presented by the digital technologies both in publication process and in logistics have increased exponentially. These new technologies have also given a new meaning to the concept of the global operational environment. What would have seemed like science fiction not so long ago is now routine.
Both students and academics can have access to a digital library and have its resources delivered to their desk via computer networks. This has had an impact on the priorities of the university libraries. The vast amount of different types of digital and printed resources has led to the situation where our patrons need more and more training and guidance to transform them into competent users, i.e. information literates.
The primary function of libraries is to collect, preserve and circulate data and publications. In addition, libraries preserve existing culture and provide information and education to the public. Specifically, university libraries make an effort to support the curriculum and promote social education, as well as conduct advanced research to enhance academic specialties. A well-functioning library, talented professors and promising students are the triangle, which create a prominent university.
The most challenging issues raised by this present situation are: how to manage the rising costs of the collection development, how at the same time to provide access to every user to the document he or she needs and how at the same time to ensure at least an acceptable basic collection in the libraries. This is not possible without co-operation and specialisation of different types of libraries as has been evident also in the printed world.
In the 1980s, a push for accountability was undertaken in universities in the USA and libraries faced the task of allocating scarce resources among competing ends. Taiwan's universities also faced the accountability issue in the 1990s and administrators brought about some revolutionary changes. In addition to being accountable for the education function, libraries, like other non-profit institutions, must compete for resources at a time when resource scarcity dominates.
A university library may be viewed as an enterprise in which the professional staff provides the operating conditions for converting quantifiable resources (inputs) into pupil learning and teachers' research (outputs). That is to say, budget constraints ensure that there is only so much money available and, whether or not there is a price tag attached, we need to choose among competing options.
The performance of university libraries is a critical issue in budgeting. University library performance refers to resource utilisation efficiency rather than an evaluation of effectiveness. It indicates that the job has been done right, but in no way ensures that the right job has been done. Because the effectiveness of a university library involves the objective achievement of an individual university, there exists no independent measure of "ideal" or a standard indicator to measure the objectives of the university. In most cases, university libraries offer similar services, but there is no absolute standard. Rather, it is a relative concept that invites comparison, so we view performance and efficiency relatively. One library is efficient when it is able to show that particular activities have a greater potential payoff than others.
The university library will remain "academic" - it will not yet merge with the public library, nor become part of a regional library. However, it will cooperate closely not only with other libraries of the same type, but also with different libraries and information centres, firstly in the region and subsequently all over the world. The university library will continue to fulfill its basic functions, however, incorporating into its mission statement some new issues, arising mainly from IT progress and changes in higher education patterns. It will depend strongly on the national information strategy and subsequently the strategy of its parent institution, but conversely, increased library lobbying will build a better understanding of information management problems and the library contribution among decision makers of different levels.
Neither growing (though still insufficient) awareness of the role of libraries in an information society, nor different forms of pressure on governing bodies will result in significant improvement in library budgets. Therefore libraries will have to look for additional income. It may be achieved through better library marketing within the community, but it will also require the introduction of a wider range of paid services. Essential services related to university requirements will, however, remain free of charge. Insufficient funds will strengthen the role of library cooperation, which is also a natural effect of easier communication.
The university library will not only serve, but also will be deeply involved in, teaching and education. It means both intensive and extensive training of users in techniques of data retrieval, and involvement in distance learning and other new patterns of teaching and learning techniques. Judging by the opinions expressed by the experts, individual solutions here will differ significantly: Some libraries will merge with academic computer centres, some will remain separate but will engage in the organisation of Internet laboratories and computer clusters for their users.
Some libraries will become deeply involved in preparation of electronic materials whereas others will limit their activities in this field to maintain adequate electronic resources and links. Irrespective of which solution they adopt, all of them will become more or less involved in both training users in computer skills and use. The most effective retrieval tools will become increasingly complicated, as the underlying algorithms will be buried deeply in the software. That is why only experts will be able to guide users in techniques leading to the most satisfactory search results. Teaching and training in data retrieval techniques will primarily involve students, academic staff and researchers.
Despite the automation of library processes, the users will expect to receive much support from the library staff. It will be of different type. Students will get assistance mainly in the library or via network services, whereas the staff will expect more individual, face-to-face assistance and desktop delivery of information. As mentioned before, almost all the users need training. It means that almost 50 per cent of library activities will be related to information management and training. These new functions will force libraries to increase the number of staff in information services, which in turn will force a decrease in the number of staff in other traditional library divisions.
It is predicted that the structure of the library staff will change. Information specialists and technicians (including hardware specialists) will form more than of the library staff. The number of staff in acquisition and cataloguing departments will decrease .
The library will play an important role in the overall university information infrastructure. In the world of ever-growing but dispersed information, libraries will deal both with information processing (adding value) and management (including resource). It will also support research through maintaining profiled resources for the local research community and providing individual personal desktop alerting services. IT progress will lead to the integration of different types of media. The primary goal of the university library will remain the responsibility for building of collections suitable for its parent institution.
The writers are library professionals and may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected]
OVER the last decade, there have been several radical changes in the operational environment of university libraries in Bangladesh, in particular the growth of information. It seems that not only the volume of the traditional ways of publishing have increased steadily, but also the possibilities presented by the digital technologies both in publication process and in logistics have increased exponentially. These new technologies have also given a new meaning to the concept of the global operational environment. What would have seemed like science fiction not so long ago is now routine.
Both students and academics can have access to a digital library and have its resources delivered to their desk via computer networks. This has had an impact on the priorities of the university libraries. The vast amount of different types of digital and printed resources has led to the situation where our patrons need more and more training and guidance to transform them into competent users, i.e. information literates.
The primary function of libraries is to collect, preserve and circulate data and publications. In addition, libraries preserve existing culture and provide information and education to the public. Specifically, university libraries make an effort to support the curriculum and promote social education, as well as conduct advanced research to enhance academic specialties. A well-functioning library, talented professors and promising students are the triangle, which create a prominent university.
The most challenging issues raised by this present situation are: how to manage the rising costs of the collection development, how at the same time to provide access to every user to the document he or she needs and how at the same time to ensure at least an acceptable basic collection in the libraries. This is not possible without co-operation and specialisation of different types of libraries as has been evident also in the printed world.
In the 1980s, a push for accountability was undertaken in universities in the USA and libraries faced the task of allocating scarce resources among competing ends. Taiwan's universities also faced the accountability issue in the 1990s and administrators brought about some revolutionary changes. In addition to being accountable for the education function, libraries, like other non-profit institutions, must compete for resources at a time when resource scarcity dominates.
A university library may be viewed as an enterprise in which the professional staff provides the operating conditions for converting quantifiable resources (inputs) into pupil learning and teachers' research (outputs). That is to say, budget constraints ensure that there is only so much money available and, whether or not there is a price tag attached, we need to choose among competing options.
The performance of university libraries is a critical issue in budgeting. University library performance refers to resource utilisation efficiency rather than an evaluation of effectiveness. It indicates that the job has been done right, but in no way ensures that the right job has been done. Because the effectiveness of a university library involves the objective achievement of an individual university, there exists no independent measure of "ideal" or a standard indicator to measure the objectives of the university. In most cases, university libraries offer similar services, but there is no absolute standard. Rather, it is a relative concept that invites comparison, so we view performance and efficiency relatively. One library is efficient when it is able to show that particular activities have a greater potential payoff than others.
The university library will remain "academic" - it will not yet merge with the public library, nor become part of a regional library. However, it will cooperate closely not only with other libraries of the same type, but also with different libraries and information centres, firstly in the region and subsequently all over the world. The university library will continue to fulfill its basic functions, however, incorporating into its mission statement some new issues, arising mainly from IT progress and changes in higher education patterns. It will depend strongly on the national information strategy and subsequently the strategy of its parent institution, but conversely, increased library lobbying will build a better understanding of information management problems and the library contribution among decision makers of different levels.
Neither growing (though still insufficient) awareness of the role of libraries in an information society, nor different forms of pressure on governing bodies will result in significant improvement in library budgets. Therefore libraries will have to look for additional income. It may be achieved through better library marketing within the community, but it will also require the introduction of a wider range of paid services. Essential services related to university requirements will, however, remain free of charge. Insufficient funds will strengthen the role of library cooperation, which is also a natural effect of easier communication.
The university library will not only serve, but also will be deeply involved in, teaching and education. It means both intensive and extensive training of users in techniques of data retrieval, and involvement in distance learning and other new patterns of teaching and learning techniques. Judging by the opinions expressed by the experts, individual solutions here will differ significantly: Some libraries will merge with academic computer centres, some will remain separate but will engage in the organisation of Internet laboratories and computer clusters for their users.
Some libraries will become deeply involved in preparation of electronic materials whereas others will limit their activities in this field to maintain adequate electronic resources and links. Irrespective of which solution they adopt, all of them will become more or less involved in both training users in computer skills and use. The most effective retrieval tools will become increasingly complicated, as the underlying algorithms will be buried deeply in the software. That is why only experts will be able to guide users in techniques leading to the most satisfactory search results. Teaching and training in data retrieval techniques will primarily involve students, academic staff and researchers.
Despite the automation of library processes, the users will expect to receive much support from the library staff. It will be of different type. Students will get assistance mainly in the library or via network services, whereas the staff will expect more individual, face-to-face assistance and desktop delivery of information. As mentioned before, almost all the users need training. It means that almost 50 per cent of library activities will be related to information management and training. These new functions will force libraries to increase the number of staff in information services, which in turn will force a decrease in the number of staff in other traditional library divisions.
It is predicted that the structure of the library staff will change. Information specialists and technicians (including hardware specialists) will form more than of the library staff. The number of staff in acquisition and cataloguing departments will decrease .
The library will play an important role in the overall university information infrastructure. In the world of ever-growing but dispersed information, libraries will deal both with information processing (adding value) and management (including resource). It will also support research through maintaining profiled resources for the local research community and providing individual personal desktop alerting services. IT progress will lead to the integration of different types of media. The primary goal of the university library will remain the responsibility for building of collections suitable for its parent institution.
The writers are library professionals and may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected]