3/2/2006
what makes a library?
Richard Ackerman’s latest post on the future of the scientific research library has me thinking about what makes a library a library.
I think any librarian would agree that the most important part of the library isn’t the materials contained within but how they are used. And most any special librarian - not just in the sciences - will agree that what the clients are looking for is more remote access to materials and resources. That’s something we’re working on at MPOW right now; adding links to electronic versions of our in-house reports to our OPAC so they can be accessed from a client’s desktop. So can the physical library simply be dispensed with?
It depends, I suppose, on your industry and your clientele. I can only speak for my particularly limited experience, which is that my scientists want both. They certainly want the instant desktop access of electronic copies, particularly when it comes to reusing data from other in-house work. But they also want the copy in paper, and many of them can’t yet imagine keeping up with the industry by reading e-journals.
Additionally, many of them use the library serendipidously. They poke their head in the door and ask me where petroleum technology materials are shelved. I show them, and they browse through the shelves. Sometimes they find something they wouldn’t have noticed when searching the OPAC.
The physical part, though not the most important, essential part of the library, is still important at MPOW. It’s expected to be there. My clients use it. What the library is…is a meshing of an oft-used physical archive, an electronic archive, and the professional research and organization experts - the librarians, all two of us - that keep it all organized.
Filed under: Librarianship, Work, Knowledge Management
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:26 pm
I’d go even a step further and say the most important part is how a librarian can connect the members of their community to the materials they want/need — regardless of whether the stuff is in (or controlled) by a particular library or not. It’s the librarian’s skill that is most important, not a particular collection.
That being said, in almost all cases, the library as place continues to be very important. The fact is, libraries always served a multiplicity of purposes — places of contemplation, refuge, collaboration, etc., — but their role as the place for the physical collection was so important that we didn’t pay much attention to those other roles. Now we have the opportunity to rethink our spaces and make them better at serving all of those other needs as well.
March 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 am
I also work in a special library, more specifically in a pharmaceutical company’s library. To answer your question, what makes our library a library is the librarians.
Recently we lost our space and were forced to downsize our collections. Therefore, all we have left to build upon for the future is the value the librarians add. We find ourselves having to redefine what the library is without the space to which our customers have become accustomed.
It will be interesting to see if our customers accept this new “library.”
March 5th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Thoughtful posts, both yours and Richard’s; they are helping me to better understand and articulate my unease with the continued existence of corporate and governmental libraries. I still have to think many “Library things” through (!) before my head is clear on this… Thanks.