Lizabeth A. Wilson

Creating Sustainable Futures for Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For academic libraries, sustainability may well require a radical recalibration of their historic value proposition. The “Great Recession” has accelerated profound changes in higher education funding and in the perception of higher education as a public good. Can libraries use scarcity to fuel the imagination? Can the singular strengths of libraries boost the ability of higher education to thrive, not merely survive? What can be learned from strategies employed in the Great Depression and other periods of severe constraint? Ultimately, how might libraries increase revenue, engender flexibility, foster collaboration, align activities, reduce costs, strengthen infrastructure, and encourage innovation within the framework of a sustainable academic business plan? This article examines these questions by using the University of Washingtons 2Y2D (Two Years to Two Decades) initiative and the UW Libraries companion effort, Building Sustainable Futures, as a case study. 2Y2D provides an inclusive framework for near term action (two years) that will realize an aspirational future in the long-term (two decades). Building Sustainable Futures places a library lens over 2Y2D. The Libraries Research Commons exemplifies the synergistic intersection of the two initiatives and may be instructive for other environments and institutions.

What a difference a decade makes: transformation in academic library instruction

In 1994, the author presented the inaugural LOEX‐of‐the‐West keynote entitled “Glacier or avalanche? Shifts in the electronic, educational, and library landscape”. She outlined the forces shaping the instruction landscape: changing users; information technology; social frameworks; educational change; and economic realities. She posited that libraries would find opportunities in the shifting landscape including: user‐centeredness; using technology to transform; alliances and partnerships; experimentations; collaboratories; self‐sufficiency; inclusiveness; and value‐added librarians. In this 2004 keynote, she reflects on what has transpired in academic library instruction over the decade and speculates on the forces and opportunities that will shape the next ten years.

Local to Global: The Emerging Research Library

ABSTRACT Research, scholarship, and discovery have been transformed by the internet and communication technologies across all sectors on a global basis. The rapid dissemination of findings, the creation of new tools and platforms for information manipulation, and open access to research data have rendered the more traditional institution-based library approaches to providing access to information inadequate. This paper will examine collective choices and strategies needed to move local collections and services to a global scale in the emerging research library.

Education for bibliographic instruction: combining practice and theory

Library educators and bibliographic instruction practitioners both acknowledge that library school graduates are often ill prepared for bibliographic instruction responsibilities. But no concensus exists on how best to solve the dilemma of education for bibliographic instruction. This paper presents one possible solution a course that combines bibliographic instruction theory and practice. In addition to detailing the background, development, implementation, and evaluation of the course offered in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during 1984 and 1985, this paper also provides recommendations for future education for bibliographic instruction

Panel 3: Into the Glass Darkly: Future Directions in the 21st Century

ABSTRACT Panelists look at publishing and scholarly communications from varied perspectives and discuss possible futures for interaction between publishers, libraries, and the research university.

Communicating resource needs for successful library services

Library professionals spend much of their budgeting time focused inward, allocating scarce resources among worthy competing priorities. Considerable time and skill is focused on the acquisition of the best print and electronic resources and in planning for computing infrastructure. And librarians are generous in sharing with others best practices for making budgetary decisions through articles in the library literature. However, less attention has been given in the literature on advice for those who wish to increase budgets for the services and programmatic offerings that are equally important for library clientele. This article attempts to address that gap. Summarizes the sage advice given in a presentation to a gathering of academic librarians during the June 1999 ALA to those who would better understand the budget process at research universities. Although the advice pertains primarily to budgeting practice in the USA, there are several nuggets of wisdom applicable in any situation.

RLG and OCLC: Combined for the Future

On July 1, 2006, The Research Libraries Group, Inc. (RLG) and the Online Computer Library System (OCLC) combined their organizations and resources. RLGs products and services were integrated with OCLCs, and RLGs program initiatives went forward within an expanded OCLC Research division. This was a historic moment for libraries and research institutions consonant with the incredible changes in the information environment that had been underway during the previous decade. The expansion of WorldCat that resulted and the renewed attention given to research libraries by OCLC in the merger has positively impacted libraries around the globe.