Arcturus: Assignment 2

We know when we are succeeding when…

The Library is a center of academic life

• Libraries continue to distribute and warehouse information–Wulf
• Challenge to keep pace of the flood of information exchange and to remain relevant.–Line
• Information Commons model–Bailey
• (See other comments below on physical space)

Our physical spaces promote research, reflection, collaboration

• The library is becoming a hybrid with both electronic and traditional services–Line
• Computers getting smaller and more compact which allows for different kinds of space–Tennant
• Information Commons model–Bailey
• Top areas where users do their information work: library, residence, and office–Watson Healy
• Undergraduate and grad students spend nearly one-third of their time working in a physical library–Watson Healy
• Faculty work from their office or residence 85% of the time–Watson Healy
• Use of print books and journals predominates, for now–Watson Healy
• Nearly all users have a high degree of trust in library-deployed information resources–Watson Healy
• Academic information users want: access to the library for printed books, manuscripts, primary sources, and other elusive materials–Watson Healy

Our virtual space offers resources and services anywhere, anytime

• The library must become the facilitator of retrieval and dissemination–not a “container” of the information sources–Wulf
• The library and the book are merging–Wulf
• Protecting the libraries’ and the users’ rights in license negotiations–Line
• Electronic document delivery–Line
• Small trend toward increased direct publishing on the internet (primarily in the arena of journal publishing)–Line
• Computer memory is ubiquitous and cheap–Tennant
• Removal of time and space constraints for doing knowledge work. This includes the staff person, as well as the seeker of information–Davis
• To find information, everyone goes online first–Watson Healy
• Engineers and scientists want anytime anywhere access to online information and are finding more needs met on the internet–Watson Healy
• The Information Commons model—Bailey
• Digitization a big trend in Special Collections--Hirtle
• The Humanities need access to physical collections and are underserved in the online environment

All resources and services are easy to use

• The ability to process information is the heart of what the university is and does–Wulf
• Electronic books will not consist of a simple linear presentation of static information–Wulf
• We can carry the library with us–Wulf
• Movement toward moving ILL book borrowing to a circulation-based process, thus decreasing the actual number of ILL transactions–Line
• Semantic Web will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out tasks for users. Berners-Lee
• Resources and services should be user-centered
• They want it quick and convenience

All users are information fluent

• Predicting the societal impact of technology is difficult–Wulf
• The user will initiate their own ILL requests (user empowerment)–Line
• Users like using Amazon more than library catalogs (synopsis, gives reviews, if you like “this”, you might like “these” –Block
• Libraries are providing instruction in information literacy, described as the “ability to locate, manage, critically evaluate, and use information for problem solving, research, decision making, and continued professional development.”–Kasowitz-Scheer
• Users trust the library, the internet wins for daily information use–Watson Healy
• We need to change how we organize information and teach students on library information seeking skills. The teaching “piece” through information literacy
• They want it quick and convenience
• They don’t know what they don’t know

Our investment in staff, information resources, and technology promotes academic success and life-long learning.

• The trend of the exponential rate of the improvement of technology (speed and storage capacity; bandwidth; increased traffic on the internet; cost of technology –Wulf
• Licensing is a trend for buying access to information–Line
• Standards based ILL provides for exchange of requests without using same system or software–Line
• Increased electronic access will lead to a reduction in staff–Line
• Knowledgeable staff is the key–not just at mid management level, but into all grades of staff–Line
• MARC has outlived its usefulness, as information technology is moving to XML–Tennant
• Push technology is available, but “we” don’t use it–putting our specialized knowledge about the books into the catalog, i.e. Amazon’s method –Block
• GIS technology in library instruction is becoming more prevalent–Argentati
• Staff members need to be constantly retrained—there is a need to focus on "best practices"
• Libraries are competing with Amazon.com and Questia
• Needs to address collection development issues

Trend that don’t fit neatly into the above categories:

• Who Pays?–Line
• Who pays for printing varies from each institution. The volume is printing is increasing (Troll). Regardless who pays, the printers need to be faster, better, etc.
• Collaboration on the university level-- such as between UTA & TCC on student transfers. How do the various types of collaborative efforts at the institution level affect our Libraries?
• Outcomes/assessment articles (Kaswitz,Troll, Fister)
• ACRL 1986 standards: to sustain the range of library programs required by the institution” library budgets “shall be 6% of the total institutional budget for education and general purposes,” excluding capital costs and the costs of physical maintenance. It should be more than 6% if the library is responsible for acquiring, processing, and servicing audiovisual materials and microcomputer resources.”--Troll