College Libraries are Facing Multiple Threats
Libraries and universities have been closely linked since the 3rd century BC when the Library of Alexandria in Egypt became the first great center of scholarship ever known. Intellectuals came from all over the Western world to study the hundreds of thousands of scrolls deposited in the library. There they discussed their viewpoints in meting rooms or while walking in their gardens, or presented their findings and ideas in lecture halls, creating the concept that we know today as a college campus. In fact, many university campuses when originally designed placed their libraries right at the center of their campus blueprints. They saw libraries as the most commonly used facility and as the epicenter of intellectual life.
Several centuries later the Library of Alexandria was destroyed by a series of fires when religious conflicts made its use and its users suspect of not following certain ideological and theological orthodoxies after the ascent of Christianity.
Today university libraries are facing their own crises, brought about by numerous causes.
One is cost. In the last 20 years or so we have seen an increasing concentration of academic publishers into a few corporate hands. Fewer publishers mean less competition. This concentration has allowed them to raise the subscription prices of an increasing number of academic journals. These journals are the bread and butter of the academic enterprise. Because of academic specialization in almost every discipline, there are almost 50,000 academic journals published every year to which academic libraries around the world subscribe. Add to that the more than two million books published worldwide on an annual basis and you can see what a big business academic publishing has become.
Some institutions have responded by forming cartels so they can negotiate with those publishing corporations from a position of strength. In other cases, we have seen how some colleges and universities motivate their faculty to publish in open access journals, that is, publications (most of the time online) for which nobody has to pay anything to read. Even the federal government has stepped in, forcing the publication of research it has funded in journals that are also open access.
But make no mistake about it, this is just part of the problem. I still remember many years ago when I met with one of the top officials of the Library of Congress, the world’s largest with more than 160,000,000 items. I was told that the most expensive item they had was space. Despite the increasing number of journals and books that are in electronic format, space continues to be an issue for many libraries. On top of that you need to have specialized personnel capable of managing those items from cataloguing to preservation, and that also costs money
Lately we have seen how many university libraries have become more and more adept to social change, avoiding being seen as just repositories of publications and more as social centers of learning where new books and ideas are discussed, where students find a place to meet, and who, without disturbing those who seek solitude and silence, can also interact in lively discussions about many intellectual issues.
Other academic libraries have been very wise in pursuing to house special collections of items, usually manuscripts and papers from famous academics, papers that can be used for both teaching and research purposes. After all, money can buy almost any book or subscription to any journal. If not, you can get them via interlibrary loan for free. What really gives a distinctive character to libraries are those special collections they house that nobody else has.
However, I see another threat to academic libraries much more dangerous than lack of money. In the last 10 years or so we have seen an increasing number of executives of higher education who come from outside the academic world. These are individuals for whom a library is just another expense, one for which fundraising is very difficult because they do not have an alumni base to tap for donations in the way that academic departments do. Some consider libraries a thing of the past because they think that everything that you need to know can be obtained over the Internet. I actually once heard the chief executive officer of an institution of higher education say just that. Obviously people who think like that have a very poor understanding of the academic enterprise.
But this belittling of libraries as a fundamental tool of colleges and universities is not only the direct result of intellectually impaired executives, but also a consequence of faculty themselves who rarely design courses that encourage the use of library resources. And when I say library resources I am not just talking about books, journals or videos. I am talking about librarians themselves. The whole purpose of a library staff is to serve its users and their talents are increasingly being wasted at college and university libraries. We do not direct our students to go to the library and get trained in how to look for information beyond the use of a few keywords on the Internet.
The sad result of this lack of student use will have a forgone conclusion, and that is a continuing decrease in financial support for libraries. Lack of student use will, in turn, result in fewer resources for faculty who need them in order to carry out their own scholarship.
The major threat to academic libraries today is not lack of financial resources, but the lack of vision and responsibility by those who are supposed to be using them. Just as religious intolerance ended up destroying the Library of Alexandria, many academic libraries today face real threats due in large part to the indolence of those who most benefit from their existence.
PDF Version
College Libraries Are Facing Multiple Threats