Relevancy of Libraries in a Digital World 

Fred Heath’s Documenting the Global Conversation: Relevancy of Libraries in a Digital World was published in the July 2009 issue of Journal of Library Administration. According to the University of Texas (UT) website, Fred Heath has more than 30 years experience in academic librarianship and is currently the Vice Provost and Director of the University of Texas Libraries, a position he has held since 2003. Heath’s article concentrates on the transformation of research libraries as they try to adapt in the ever changing information technology. His article highlights the tremendous effects of the web on the newspapers, music industry, book publishing, higher education, and on libraries. Despite of the pessimism brought by the web on these fields, Heath (2009, p.526) claims that libraries may survive “by doing things they do best”. He then discusses the activities being undertaken by his organisation-University of Texas to meet the challenges of the future. This review will focus on the important issues regarding Heath’s vision of research libraries in a digital world.

The first half of Heath's article concentrates on the enormous impact of the web on the newspapers, music industry, book publishing, and higher education - many companies from these industries had ceased operations because of the web. He also discusses what survival strategies these industries are implementing as well as their actions to take advantage of the situation. Some of the disruptive changes he portrays, to name a few, include: in the music industry, artists could just release their internet albums; in book publishing, printed books sales declined while e-books sales has dramatically increased; the newspapers have ceased as the major source of news and advertising and as a result, a lot are closing down; in higher education, distance education courses have became so popular. In all of the industries mentioned, there is an obvious ongoing common trend - the elimination of intermediaries to gain information made possible by the web. To emphasise further a scenario that may as well be applicable to libraries, Heath (2009, p.523) cites the world of learning of Louis Rosetto, editor of Wired magazine, where there are “no gatekeepers and no navigators needed”.

Despite of all the gloom caused by the web in the above mentioned industries, the other half of the article discusses Heath’s optimistic view for the survival and the future of academic libraries. He illustrates his points by taking into account recent directions and activities undertaken by UT. Heath (2009) argues that libraries will survive because they are places where critical thinking is developed and questions are answered with the guidance and help of instruction librarians, administration and faculty alike. In other words, the environment a library can offer is vital to effective learning. In addition, UT’s reference librarians developed an efficient and transparent information navigation system to help students in their quest for knowledge.  UT’s library spaces are also being transformed into an “interactive meeting space, rather than storage facilities for analog formats” (Heath, 2009, p528). This is in conformance with Duderstadt (2009) observation that libraries are now built not as repositories but rather as a “knowledge commons”- a common place, where users accessed digital knowledge on remote servers. Heath (2009) emphasises the need to have a world class collections to attract scholars and researchers around the world as well as services that would facilitate the easy access of information for students. Heath (2009) also suggests that libraries should move to facilitate effective inquiry by employing more advanced tools such as Google Scholar. Finally, Heath (2009) considers libraries as institutional repositories where history is preserved.

Heath’s account gives the reader an overview of the activities and directions of industries that have been affected by the web. In particular, the activities of UT’s research libraries give the reader a taste of what research libraries and librarians have become. However, by concentrating his presentation with those undertaken by UT, the reader could end up wondering what strategies other libraries are implementing, especially smaller ones, to wither the transformational changes brought about by technological advancement. The title starts with the phrase 'documenting global conversation'. At first glimpse, some readers might think the article would consider inputs from different stakeholders such as students, academics and librarians globally, or about the consensus of the directions libraries are heading into. Heath’s article proves otherwise. For interested readers, such a report could be found in an article moderated by Hay and Todd (2010), where based on gathered information and viewpoints from different stakeholders, they posited sixteen recommendations as essential elements in creating sustainable futures for school libraries.

References

Heath, F. (2009). Documenting the global conversation: Relevancy of Libraries in a Digital World. Journal of Library Administration, 49(5), 519-532.

DOI: 10.1080/01930820903090896

Duderstadt, J. (2009). Possible Futures for the Research Library in the 21^st Century. Journal of Library Administration, 49(3), 217-225. DOI:10.1080/01930820902784770

Todd, R. & Hay, L. (2010). School Libraries 21C: The Conversation Begins. Scan, 29(1), 30-42. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/

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