Adapting to the Information Age

(Part 2 of the white paper I'm working on.)

Our patrons no longer perceive that we provide unique services. We do not have a monopoly on information services; rather, our broader culture is an information culture. The Google search engine is the first choice of many for information needs. The full-text of our newspapers are available online with up-to-the-minute coverage. Apple'’s iTunes service, a digital music and video library, is a mainstream commercial success. In academe, open-access projects such as arXive, the Public Library of Science, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy have demonstrated that scholarly content can be delivered free on the web, completely external to traditional library services.

Whether we are aware of it or not, we compete for the attention of our patrons who have alternatives for information access. We exist in an expanding information culture in a mature information age. Academic libraries can remain relevant in this age, but the key to our success will be in developing new services that are valuable to our patrons in the context of the broader landscape. Our professional values should remain our guide, but our means must adapt. In order to evolve our services, we must understand, embrace, and adapt to modern times. Foremost, we must thoroughly understand the need and desires of our patrons, and strive to meet those needs. Besides this, we must understand the information culture from multiple perspectives and seek opportunities to innovate and improve in ways that support our values:

- What information do our patrons want and how do they want it delivered? What can we do with information (how can we add value to it) to make it easier for them to use?

- What is the life cycle of digital information? How should the academic library manage information throughout its life cycle? Are we doing all that we should be doing, or should we do things differently?

- What are the relevant technologies? What new technologies are being introduced? How can we employ these technologies in support of our services?

(Next, I'm going to talk about some specific steps we can take here and now.)