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WILL RESEARCHERS
IN 2020 STILL
NEED LIBRARIES?
Sources of information, places to think: traditionally, libraries are cor-
nerstones of academic work. How will digitisation change this link?
And how will libraries have to develop to meet the requirements of the
research of tomorrow?
Answers by
JAMES G. NEAL
The library has always been a fundamental partner in the
research process. But key changes in the information, tech-
nology, economic, and scholarly environments are challeng-
ing this relationship and raising critical questions about the
value and impact of the library in scholarship.
Do twentieth century library skills still matter to researchers
working in university, corporate, government, and community
settings? The work of information selection, acquisition, and
synthesis; the support provided for navigation, dissemination,
interpretation and understanding; the tools for use, applica-
tion and archiving of information – does the research and
scholarly community still need this support in the ways that
libraries have provided it over the last ffty years? And do
the new roles that libraries are developing, as aggressive con-
sumers, intermediaries and aggregators, publishers and edu-
cators, research and development organizations, creative and
maker spaces, entrepreneurs, and advocates – do these present
a refreshed opportunity for library centrality to researchers?
What is provoking new thinking about the role of 21st cen-
tury library in research? We are confronting rapidly shifting
researcher behaviors and expectations. We are unbundling
redundant and inefcient library operations and aging ser-
vice paradigms. We are putting increased emphasis on the
unique and distinctive and special collections, in all formats.
We recognize the need to achieve scale and network efects
through creative aggregation. We are building advanced
open architecture and open systems to support collaborative
work. We are confronting mandates for national and global
systemic changes in the way libraries work and the accelera-
tion in collective innovation through applications and social
media. We understand the new economic context. We are
supporting a much more mobile researcher working in a
multi-disciplinary and global setting. We are seeking a place
in the exploding world of open and online learning. We em-
brace mutability, constant change and hybrid approaches to
the services that we provide.
The library is being driven by fve fundamental shifts. Pri-
mal innovation: creativity as an essential component of our
organizational and individual DNA. Radical collaboration:
new, drastic, sweeping and energetic combinations across and
outside libraries. Deconstruction: taking apart traditional ax-
ioms and norms, removing the incoherence of current con-
cepts and models, and evolving new approaches and styles.
Survival: persistence and adaptation which focuses more
on the “human” objectives of our researchers, that is suc-
cess, productivity, progress, relationships, experiences and
impact. Particularism: deep specialization and rich new
g
CROSS
ING
BOR
DERS
Sieben Fragen zur Zukunft des Zugangs zu Informationen und zu Bibliotheken in der digitalen Welt.
Und sieben persönliche Antworten.
// Seven questions about the future of access and libraries in a
digital world. And seven personal answers.