Maintaining Institutional Repositories is a Key Part of the Future Role of Research Libraries
Richard Ackerman, Is the research library obsolete? Science Library Pad, February 12, 2006. Excerpt (OA News Blog, 13 Feb 2006):
Research libraries on the other hand, don't play any of [the] roles [played by public libraries or undergrad-focused academic libraries]. There is no public to serve. There is no community meeting place role. There are no confused or desperate undergrads to help. So shouldn't a research library just [1] digitize and index all of its current (out of copyright) paper holdings, and then send the paper into storage in some climate-controlled cave somewhere, [2] provide good licensed access to the necessary publisher websites for its researchers, [3] close down[?]
Does anyone disagree that the traditional role of a research library, that of providing local convenient access to scientific publications, is erased by the presence of publisher websites on the Internet? That being the case, what value is left for research libraries to add? Researchers don't need (or want) the guidance or handholding that undergrads require. Is there anything left for the research library other than inventing new roles for itself? I can only see three roles that make sense: [1] institutional repository for pre-prints and post-prints of the research organization's publications, [2] data repository for the research conducted at the organization, [3] providing advanced (data/publication/information/discovery/etc.) tools that integrate into the researcher's workflow... To put it more concisely, either your research library becomes part of the E-Science Cyberinfrastructure, or it gets paved over.
Research libraries on the other hand, don't play any of [the] roles [played by public libraries or undergrad-focused academic libraries]. There is no public to serve. There is no community meeting place role. There are no confused or desperate undergrads to help. So shouldn't a research library just [1] digitize and index all of its current (out of copyright) paper holdings, and then send the paper into storage in some climate-controlled cave somewhere, [2] provide good licensed access to the necessary publisher websites for its researchers, [3] close down[?]
Does anyone disagree that the traditional role of a research library, that of providing local convenient access to scientific publications, is erased by the presence of publisher websites on the Internet? That being the case, what value is left for research libraries to add? Researchers don't need (or want) the guidance or handholding that undergrads require. Is there anything left for the research library other than inventing new roles for itself? I can only see three roles that make sense: [1] institutional repository for pre-prints and post-prints of the research organization's publications, [2] data repository for the research conducted at the organization, [3] providing advanced (data/publication/information/discovery/etc.) tools that integrate into the researcher's workflow... To put it more concisely, either your research library becomes part of the E-Science Cyberinfrastructure, or it gets paved over.
posted by Israel Scholar | 12.3.06
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