taking libraries to the next level ?
I'm not quite sure how I feel about UT-Austin's new move to "relocate the book collection to appropriate campus libraries" and convert the library into a 24-hour technology center with "an array of coordinated information resources and instructional services." Apparently the books will all be available online (does that mean scanned and online, online via the publishers, online via inter-library-loan?), but I don't see any real discussion of the effort in the article above.
Comments
You might find this article interesting:
http://www.ytlcommunity.com/commnews/shownews.asp?newsid=17202
Posted by: Stacie | June 1, 2005 3:48 PM
I don't think this is such a big deal. The 90,000 books in UT's undergrad library are a tiny fraction of the 8 million+ volumes held by the UT Libraries. 6,000 reference books will stay. A lot of recent research on academic libraries shows that most of the use of print materials is done by graduate students and faculty; undergrads, typically with much less specific and/or extensive research needs, get by with what they find online.
It doesn't sound like they're digitizing the 90,000 books (that would be a huge undertaking, unless you happen to be Google). They'll simply be available elsewhere, primarily (from the sounds of things) in the Perry-Castaneda Library, which is the main library on the UT campus (about three blocks from the undegraduate library). If UT is anything like the U of M, they subscribe to thousands of e-books, many of which they also happen to have in print. So those would be available right in the building.
Undergraduate libraries have always been the bastard stepchildren of large research library systems (I've always thought it was a good thing that the U of M didn't go that route). Undergrads doing any remotely substantial research have always had to go to the main or "graduate" library, anyway. Tailoring the existing facility to the needs and typical tasks of undergrads seems like a reasonable approach, especially since the books aren't really going anywhere.
Posted by: Stacie | June 1, 2005 3:47 PM