Sarah M. Pritchard

Deconstructing the Library: Reconceptualizing Collections, Spaces and Services

ABSTRACT In the digital environment, we still have resources, staff, and facilities that combine in various ways to acquire and provide information. These recombinations challenge traditional definitions of library organization. Students and faculty now have many options for conducting their work, of which the traditional library is only one; the future of libraries—and librarians—will thus be in our ability to differentiate ourselves through unique and value added features. The library is not a single static entity, it is becoming a suite of services through which users locate, use, and (re)create research materials. By analyzing the intersection of factors such as subject, level of user, type of need, and proximity, we can develop a fine-tuned approach and customize services across the spectrum of physical, electronic, human, and material resources.

Boundary-Crossing in the Age of Turf

Despite the hype that the peer-reviewed journal is dying and does not fit today’s modes of scholarship, the number of journals is flourishing; and the problems of editing and publishing them has become even more complex. The digital environment presents new challenges and also throws into high relief some very old ones, for example copyright and plagiarism. We are well past the early days of electronic journals—when the very phrase meant they were not peer reviewed and not indexed and did not represent the respected literature of a field. Digital content can now include everything from junk to the highest quality—and most expensive—flagship academic books and periodicals. There is a proliferation of business models, by which I mean things like regular subscriptions, a whole range of open access categories, and new forms of bundled or aggregated packages of journals. Is it all a big free-for-all, as some say; or, if not, what differentiates these many products? It is not actually the format or the delivery channel or even the business model. As has been the case for centuries, it is a question of who are the scholars that are producing and editing the information, and what are the institutions—such as universities and publishers—that are hosting and issuing the material. Ultimately it is a matter of who has standing and credibility in a given field. I want to look at that rather traditional problem of validation in the field and what happens as the definitions and scope of the field evolve. This is ultimately what gives birth to so many new journals, as fields of academic and professional interest subdivide into more depth, recombine to articulate wider syntheses, or weave to form interdisciplinary domains. portal is itself a product of this sort of movement and a case study for interdisciplinarity in the field of library science. There may be a chicken-and-egg problem as to which comes first in the dynamics of an evolving discipline. Does the practice change, and gradually the journals catch up? Or, can leaders in a field establish journals with an innovative mission and encourage scholarship to pursue those directions? It is probably a little of both; and, unfortunately, there can be roadblocks and prolonged disconnects no matter which route is taken.

Preservation, Repositories & Mandates

Are we satisfied with the current state of global knowledge preservation? What are the current preservation methods? Who are the actors? Is this system satisfactory? What role do institutional repositories play in this process? What does the future hold for these repositories (taking into account linking efforts, publishing company concerns about revenue declines, widespread dark archiving practices, and so on)? Would new mandates help (or do we simply need to tighten existing mandates so they actually compel authors to do certain things)? And how do versions of record figure into all of this—that is, how do archiving policies (with regard to differences between pre-journal and post-journal versions) affect knowledge accuracy and transfer?

Shaping the Course of a Profession Festschrift in Honor of Duane E. Webster

In this issue, we take stock of the impact on the field of academic and research librarianship by Duane E. Webster and his work with the Association of Research Libraries from 1970 to 2008. The articles included were presented at a special symposium held at Columbia University in the spring of 2008 in honor of Duane. I welcome portal Editor Emeritus Charles Lowry and my colleague on the portal editorial board, James Neal, as guest editors for this issue. Their opening editorials give more thoughts on the impressive and wide-ranging contributions that Duane has made over several decades to librarianship, information technology, management studies, information policy, and higher education. It is, however, an unplanned coincidence that Charles, the former editor of portal, is now the executive director of the ARL, and I, the current editor, was for a few years an associate director and a program officer at the association. We, thus, share a more personal experience of working with Duane to mobilize a small staff to join with library directors and other leaders across the country to put together an international program of research, advocacy, collaboration, training, and communication. Amidst the more serious professional assessments presented here, I thought I would personalize this with some observations about Duane Webster as a boss. How does someone known for his skillful management consulting put those ideas into practice? Here are some of the things I learned from watching and working with Duane. These may not have been the things he was trying to teach, but it is a little like the role of an author and the notion of “reader response” literary criticism; once you are done writing, the work is out there, and you cannot control how the reader interprets it.

Library leaders on digital libraries and the future of the research library: a panel discussion

This panel presents perspectives from a group of research library leaders on the evolving relationships between the body of systems, services and technologies associated with digital libraries and the institution of the research library. Four panelists and the moderator will consider many questions, including whether libraries are being too timid or overly aggressive in engaging the world of digital libraries; the extent to which digital library technologies may threaten the future of the research library; and how changes in the practices of science and scholarship due to information technology and digital content will help shape the future of the research library and the integration of digital library technologies. We will also examine the possible roles of research libraries in helping to make digital library projects sustainable. The panel will also include time for questions from the audience.