source:http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2013/academic-libraries
Academic Libraries
Pressure on higher education is keenly felt in the campus library
The pressure on higher education to demonstrate value continued in
2012—and remains the top issue facing academic and research libraries.
National accrediting agencies have expanded their criteria by almost 50 percent
since 2008, with more focus on outcomes, including assessing student learning
and graduation rates, Eric Kelderman wrote
in December 2012 in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The
message for academic librarians is that students need to be able to
analyze information and apply it to new contexts, reflect on what they
know, identify what they still need to learn, and sort through
contradictory arguments.
Librarians have their work cut out for them. John H. Pryor of the
Higher Education Research Institute surveyed incoming first-year college
students in the fall of 2011 and found that 60 percent do not evaluate
the quality or reliability of information, 75 percent do not know how to find
research articles and resources, and 44 percent do not know how to integrate
knowledge from different sources. (“The American Freshman: National Norms, Fall
2011”PDF)
In fact, most students in higher education don’t consider the campus
library website a must for success. The Educause Center for Applied
Research collaborated with 195 institutions in 2012 to ask more than
100,000 students a range of questions, including: “When it comes to your
success as an undergraduate, what is the one website or online resource you
couldn’t live without?” The most frequently cited sources were
Google (33 percent) and Blackboard (16 percent), while only 5 percent
went with the college or university library website. (“ECAR Study of
Undergraduate Students and InformationTechnology, 2012” PDF)
Employers feel differently. According to a Project Information
Literacy research report, employers are less than satisfied with the
information-seeking behavior of today’s college graduates. Unlike
college, a sense of urgency often pervades the workplace, where personal
contacts often reap more useful results than online searches. Employers are
dissatisfied with graduates who settle for finding answers quickly
online rather than using both online and traditional methods to conduct
comprehensive research. (“Learning Curve: How College Graduates Solve
Information Problems OnceThey Join the Workplace" PDF)
Academic libraries clearly have an important role to play. A study by David
Schwieder and Lisa Hinchliffe that analyzed National Center for
Education Statistics datasets found that academic libraries at four-year
colleges and universities can make a broad, empirically grounded claim
of providing value to their institutions. High retention and graduation
rates were positively linked to a number of library variables,
especially library hours and the amount spent on serial publications. (“NCES
Datasets and Library Value: An Exploratory Study of 2008 Data”)
Academic libraries rise to the challenge by embracing transformation
Academic libraries are rising to the challenge, working to transform services
by minimizing physical collection space, moving to collaborative and
patron-driven collections, setting up virtual reference and automated
circulation services, and embedding library staff in online courses and
discussions, according to a report by the Education Advisory Board.
Serials costs are rising faster than academic library budgets, with 30
percent of operating costs devoted to serials in 2009, compared to 21
percent in 1989. Not surprisingly, a 2012 Association of College and
Research Libraries (ACRL) survey showed that the top challenge for the
profession is redefining the role of libraries and librarians in an
environment in which Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, and HathiTrust, a
collaborative repository of more than 10 million volumes of digital
content, provide easier access and richer collections.
Use of academic libraries is up due to increased enrollments at
colleges and universities, and the end is not in sight: Enrollments are
expected to increase by 14 percent by fall 2019 compared with fall 2010,
according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Meanwhile, the salary picture at academic libraries was mixed in
2012. Salaries generally increased or held steady from 2010 to 2012,
with the exception of beginning librarians, who lost ground. (“NCES Digest of
Education Statistics 2009” PDF)
Mean salaries paid, academic libraries, 2010 and 2012
Job title (s)
2010
2012
Change
N
Director/dean/chief officer$97,767 $100,852 + 3.20% 255
Deputy/associate/assistant director$81,897 $90,934 + 11.0% 355
Dept. head/branch manager/coordinator/senior manager$65,320 $66,895 + 2.4% 237
Manager/supervisor of support staff$57,079 $56,734 - 0.01% 363
Librarian who does not supervise$55,732 $58,209 + 4.4% 1,739
Beginning librarian$47,000 $45,560 - 3.1% 119
Total 3,068
Source: “2012 ALA-APA Salary Survey, Librarian—Public and Academic,” p. 58.
Academic libraries assume new roles in growth areas
Data curation, digital resource management and preservation,
assessment, scholarly communication, and improved services for graduate
students are growth areas for academic libraries, according to an ACRL
review of trends and issues affecting academic libraries. Understanding and
preparing for these
roles are key to the future of academic libraries. Three crucial areas:
* Publishing. More academic libraries are entering the world of
scholarly publishing by
creating or expanding services. Amherst (Mass.) College, for example,
plans to relaunch its university press this year in a project described as a
new “economic model” for
libraries. The plan is to initially publish 15 peer-reviewed, edited
titles in the liberal arts exclusively in freely accessible, digital
formats. The project suggests a model that significantly alters the role of
libraries in the information economy. “If enough libraries begin
doing [this], at some point there is going to be a critical mass of
freely available scholarly literature—literature that libraries don’t
have to purchase,” Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, wrote in December
2012. “And if they use those savings to publish more material, you reach a
tipping point."
* Data curation. Funding agencies including the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health
(NIH) now have requirements that promote open access to the underlying
data gathered during grant-funded research projects. P. Bryan Heidorn of the
University of Arizona predicts that there will be a growing demand
for library professionals with data-curation, data-mining, and
analytical skills, and a recent report from the ACRL highlighted the
need and imperative for research data services in colleges and
universities. In short, academic librarians will play a pivotal role in
the description, management, storage, access, and reuse of data.
* Staffing. Academic libraries provided 26.2 percent of all jobs for
new library school graduates in 2012, according to an October 2012 article in
Library Journal , up from 17.7 percent in 2011. The average starting salary for
new
academic librarians was $45,654, up from $40,500 in 2011. Jobs in
academic libraries in particular offered unique opportunities to work
with emerging technologies, digital repositories, and instructional
design. Not surprisingly, nearly half (47.1 percent) of the new
reference librarians were hired by academic libraries in 2011.
There is a good deal of overlap between this list and what the ACRL Research
Planning and Review Committee identified as the top 10 trends in academic and
research librarianship. These are based on a review of
the literature, information gleaned at conferences, the opinions of
those who are familiar with current trends in higher education, and, in
2012, a discussion held among ACRL members at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The
top 10 for 2012, listed in alphabetical order, are:
* Communicating value. Academic libraries must prove the value they
provide to the academic enterprise.
* Data curation. Challenges are
increasing as standards for all types of data continue to evolve; more
repositories, many of them cloud-based, will emerge; librarians and
other information workers will collaborate with their research
communities to facilitate this process.
* Digital preservation. As digital
collections mature, concerns grow about the general lack of long-term
planning for their preservation. No strategic leadership for
establishing architecture, policy, or standards for creating, accessing, and
preserving digital content is likely to emerge in the near term.
* Higher education. Institutions of
higher education are entering a period of flux and even turmoil. Trends
to watch for are the rise of online instruction and degree programs,
globalization, and an increased skepticism about the “return on
investment” in a college degree.
* Information technology. Technology continues to drive much of the
futuristic thinking within academic libraries.
* Mobile environments. Mobile devices are changing the way information
is delivered and accessed.
* Patron-driven ebook acquisition (PDA). PDA of ebooks is poised to
become the norm. For this to occur,
licensing options and models for library lending of ebooks must become
more sustainable.
* Scholarly communication. New
scholarly communication and publishing models are developing at an
ever-faster pace, requiring libraries to be actively involved or be left behind.
* Staffing. Academic libraries must
develop the staff needed to meet new challenges through creative
approaches to hiring new personnel and deploying or retraining existing
staff.
* User behaviors and expectations. Convenience affects all aspects of
information seeking—the selection, accessibility, and use of sources.
Occasionally, academic and public libraries join forces and
manage to adjust cultures and expectations so that the marriage works. Case in
point: The city of San José, Calif., and San José State University survived an
uproar from faculty (and other obstacles) and eventually achieved a
successful merger.
And perhaps setting another new trend, the libraries at Columbia University and
Cornell University announced in January 2013 that they will integrate their
technical services departments—which buy and license library materials such as
books, ebooks, e-journals, and
databases—and provide the data that users need to find and use those
materials. The project is supported by a three-year, $350,000 grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Top 10–rated institutions of higher education, library-wise
The Princeton Review released its ranking of colleges and universities in 62
categories, including “Best College Library.” (The rankings do
not take into account number of volumes, circulation, or any other
metrics.) Based on about 122,000 students’ answers to the survey
question: “How do you rate your school’s library facilities?” the top
10–rated institutions of higher education for 2013 are Harvard College,
the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), Columbia University, Stanford
University, Emory University, Yale University, Hampden-Sydney (Va.)
College, the University of Chicago, Princeton University, and Middlebury (Vt.)
College.
Librarians keep an eye on legislation, court cases
In order to help shape the future of higher education, academic
libraries and librarians continued to monitor legislation and court
cases that would either enhance or hinder their ability to provide
access to information and pave the way for innovation. Issues of
critical interest in 2012 included:
* Expanded public access to taxpayer-funded research. ACRL supported
increased public access to digital data resulting from
federally funded scientific research; joined other library, publishing,
and advocacy organizations in successfully opposing the Research Works
Act, which would have prevented agencies of the federal government from
requiring public access to federally subsidized research; worked with
the library community in promoting new legislation that would support
public access; and encouraged members to sign a White House petition on
open access to research.
* Mass digitization. Members of the academic library community in
2012 continued to closely watch progress on the long-running litigation
over Google’s project to scan and index millions of books from research
library collections. The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA), comprising
ALA, ACRL, and the Association of Research Libraries, filed an amicus curiae
brief (PDF) concerning an Authors Guild lawsuit against Google, in which
authors
allege that Google violated copyright by scanning books to create Google Books.
The LCA also joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation in two other briefs
(“Brief Amici Curiae in Support of Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgement”
PDF, “Brief Amici Curiae in Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Partial
Judgement on the Pleadings” PDF) in the Authors Guild suit against the
HathiTrust; the HathiTrust
Digital Library, operated by a consortium of universities, contains many of the
10 million digital volumes that Google provided in exchange for
the universities’ allowing the company to scan books in their
collections for its Google Books Library Project. (See also the Ebooks and
Copyright Issues section).
* Access to information. The LCA worked toward developing a unified
voice and common strategy for the library community in responding to and
developing proposals to amend national and international copyright law
and policy. In 2012, LCA members submitted a statement (PDF) and comments (PDF)
to the World Intellectual Property Organization regarding copyright
exceptions and limitations relating to libraries and archives, and an
LCA representative attended WIPO meetings in Geneva to further consider
an international treaty concerning access to copyrighted works by
individuals with print disabilities.
* Right to lend. LCA members also filed a brief (PDF) with the Supreme
Court in support of the petitioner in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley & Sons, believing an
adverse decision in this case could affect libraries’
right to lend books and other materials manufactured abroad. At the
heart of this case is the “first sale doctrine,” the principle that
books, records, movies, and other copyrighted works should be treated
like all other property; that is, when you buy a copy, you own that
copy, and you can give it away, resell it, or (as is vital for
libraries) lend it. When the Supreme Court ruled on March 19, 2013, that
Americans and U.S. businesses have the right to sell, lend, or give
away the things they own that were made overseas, the LCA issued a statement
that it was “gratifying that Justice Breyer’s majority opinion focused
on the considerable harm that the Second Circuit’s opinion would have
caused libraries.” More on LCA activities is available at the LCA website.
source:
http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2013/academic-libraries
STEPHEN B. ALAYON
Data Bank Senior Information Assistant
Library and Data Banking Services Section
Training and Information Division
Aquaculture Department (AQD)
Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC)
Tigbauan, Iloilo 5021 Philippines
URL: http://www.seafdec.org.ph
Telephone No.: 63 33 5119170 to 71 local 409
Fax No.: 63 33 5119174
Mobile Phone No.: 63 919 4506688
Email Add: [email protected], [email protected]
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