Greetings!
Welcome to the first week of the Blogging Assignment, courtesy of Group One. We will be leading the class discussion on the various types of libraries and the challenges they face.
We’ve decided to spread out our posts over the next few days, to allow ample time for giving each blog the attention it deserves. You will find discussion questions at the end of every post (except for today's introductory post); feel free to use these as a springboard for discussion, and to add any further insight you may have!
We hope you enjoy the discussion, and hopefully learn a little something along the way. Happy blogging!
The Four Types of Libraries
There are four main types of libraries: academic, public, school, and special. While academic, school, and public libraries are quite similar, the special libraries category stands alone. Let's determine what each type of library does – through this you will be able to see the similarities and difference of each.
An academic library focuses on delivering a resource collection that "supports the curriculum as well as the needs of students and faculty"
A public library is what pops into most minds when they hear the word "library". However, this is only one type of library out there. In my opinion this is the most common type of library; according to Dority, they are where "many of us first fell in love with the idea of libraries…the world of ideas – and all those books, just waiting to be devoured"
A school library is similar to a public library – it primarily focuses on books. It is my opinion that school libraries focus solely on books in order to get children interested in reading. Schools are "now blending web-based learning experiences with classroom sessions"
Special libraries are quite different from the other three library types. They can exist in the following places: art museums, engineering firms, medical libraries, and government agencies
As we move into the future, we must continue to make sure that libraries maintain their relevance in an ever-changing society. "Libraries are struggling with how to provide information and research support for the emerging blended-learning environments"
Works Cited
Dority, G. K. (2006). Rethinking Information Work. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Seiss, J., & Lorig, J. (2007). Out Front With Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders. American Library Association.
10 comments:
Thanks Group One for a very good first installment.
Hi all: I had posted this comment on the discussion board but I think it works well here.
Here is a different type of library from the ones mentioned. I think and hope it will be part of the Library 2.0/Archives 2.0 movement.
I wanted to get in a plug for individual-and community-created and maintained digital libraries and archives. Issues of copyright notwithstanding, I hope this will be a major trend in the not too distant future. All made possible by digital technology and the Internet. You can create/help create and maintain your own or a community's digital library and archive from the comfort of your own home and computer, while you are also helping to preserve and share our individual, family, and collective histories. The potential for this is truly awesome, in my view. Here's an example:
http://www.theoldhometown.com/invergordon/
(copy & paste URL if necessary).
Thanks.
Catherine G.
After reading this post and the above comment, I have to wonder if there is also an "entertainment value" for patrons to be able to access many of the library tools from their own home. Obviously, it is becoming more and more common for patrons to do.
Group One (Jessica),
This is a very informative post. Your classmates have much to read and absorb about the different types of libraries. I am looking forward to their responses.
Great job!
Academic and special libraries are opting to subscribe to electronic databases of journals. EBSCO, Proquest are good examples of this type of resource. (http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Login.asp?Librarian=1)
While these subscription services are extremely expensive for institutions ($20,000-50,000), they provide instant access to a wealth of information. Michigan State University's library provides access for students and faculty to archives of scholarly journals, newspapers and magazines.
http://er.lib.msu.edu/
Some public libraries provide access to these electronic resources, but subscription services are often priced out of reach for many public libraries. At Clinton-Macomb Public Library, access is provided to a select few resources. Many of them appear to be links to free-access site.
http://www.cmpl.org/Eresources/Default.asp
Catherine, we won't really be going into too digital collections too much in the Library 2.0/Archives sections this week, but you certainly make a good point about community collections and home-grown digital libraries.
I wonder, even, to what extent some of the larger, more common 'collection' sites may qualify as libraries in their own right. Is Flickr an image library? Another item worth mention is the power of a community that can potentially crop up around digital special collections.
I don't know if it made it into our citations, but Jessica Miller pointed out a story on NPR about the Library of Congress putting some of its image collection on Flickr. This story gets into a couple of issues, one being the sort of digital library issue you mentioned (and the idea that all collections are essentially equal) as well as the potential pitfall of this new technology: the amount of work involved in properly tagging even a single image.
I think, regarding the pitfall of tagging this sort of information, we may find a guide in a resource like Wikipedia. By harnessing the interest of intelligent, educated users, more items may be tagged more accurately and more quickly. This actually gets more to the heart of the Library 2.0 idea, giving some of the control that has traditionally been held by librarians over to the community, and getting community involved in the creation and maintainence of the library itself.
Dr. Hunt,
I should point out that Jessica W. actually wrote this section. I just posted it because I was available to do it during the time we wanted to get it up here. :)
Tara,
What do you mean by "entertainment value"? Do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing for libraries? I've always seen an online presence as a way to get patrons interested and talking about libraries and their collections (which I think is great!), but I'm interested to hear more about what you think.
Thanks for you comments, everyone. Good discussion. I think it points out the fact that when a ‘paradigm shifts’ (see Joel Barker’s website for more on this http://www.joelbarker.com/ as well as
http://www.starthrower.com/joel_barker.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift) as it has with at least some of the newer web-based technologies, there is suddenly a whole new range of possibilities to be conceptualized, discovered and explored. More than just thinking ‘outside the box,’ the box itself has changed (for those who wish to go there; not everyone will want to or necessarily needs to). It may also mean that language, conceptual frameworks, ‘rules’ and landscapes may need to change in some way to accommodate the new ideas.
In the area of Academic Libraries there are changes occurring with respect to “scholarly communications” (e.g., serial publications). The familiar landscape has been shifting and the various key players—including publishers, librarians, and scholars—are looking at new ways to achieve their various agendas. The “open access” movement is also a part of this.
Lots of change challenges out there in all types of libraries.
Thank you Jessica M. for the credit. You did post the blog though (smile)!
I'm glad everyone enjoyed the first installment of group one's blog.
Thank you for your participation.
I am reading Catherine's and Russells' posts and wondering about helping to "...create/help create and maintain your own or a community's digital library and archive from the comfort of your own home and computer, while you are also helping to preserve and share our individual, family, and collective histories." I have been working on my family's genealogy, partly to make me smarter when patrons ask questions about researching their own ancestors. One of the collaborative online genealogy sites that a co-worker shared was Rootsweb at http://www.rootsweb.com/
This site seems to me like a community digital library in that people from all over post their genealogies to the site. Others can then search for their ancestors, and are able to access work that someone else may previously have done on those same ancestors. It is truly a "community" effort. By the way, Catherine, the Invergordon project is awesome. Are you the same Catherine Gibson that posted 2 pictures as a contributor?
To contribute to the discussion on the types of libraries for this week, I would like to specifically point out some of my finding on the issues that are faced by academic libraries. In the spring of 2001, in a conference held by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a list of issues surrounding challenged faced by academic libraries was addressed (Hisle, 2001). One of the top issues was the recruitment, education and retention of academic librarians. It was noted that “even as retirements seems to increase, fewer librarians were entering the profession as a whole, and fewer librarians were entering the academic library field in particular” (Hisle, 2001). Another issue that was discussed was the role of the library in academic enterprise. The point addressed here was that academic librarians need to take proactive responsibility in “demonstrating to the campus community that the library remains central to academic effort” (Hisle, 2001) despite the increasing focus on research through convenient technology. Other issues addressed at this conference included the impact of information technology on library services, creation, control, and preservation of digital resources, chaos in scholarly communication, support of new users, and higher education funding concerns.
An issue that I found that was a major concern for academic libraries, including all of the other types, was how libraries could effectively deal with the increasing cost and competition for resources. Libraries around the world are facing rising cost and dwindling budgets due to technological advances and today’s dynamic economic climate (Spalding and Wang, 2006). Spalding and Wang pointed out in their 2006 Marketing Academic Libraries in USA: Challenges and Opportunities article that academic libraries in the United States have increasing turned to the business world and its literature for more effective “organizational, fiscal, and service delivery models”. Moreover, many academic libraries have found that by applying marketing principles and techniques, they are better able to articulate their value in light of the achievement of their universities’ goals, and are better able to communicate with and meet their users’ needs. The authors contended that strategic marketing would provide all libraries, not just academic, with a process through which audience research can be conducted and its results used to deliver the most relevant product or message in the most audience-appropriate way to capture the attention and understanding of the audience. I definitely agree that using business tactics could help libraries put their financial issues into prospective.
References:
Top issues facing academic libraries: A report of the Focus on the Future Task Force C&RL News, November 2002 Vol. 63 No. 1 by W. Lee Hisle
Marketing Academic Libraries in USA: Challenges and Opportunities Helen H. Spalding and Jian Wang
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