Ithaka Report available

The Ithaka organization has published their findings from a 2006 survey of both faculty and librarians about scholarly publishing and how technological change has changed the faculty/library relationship. The studies, Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education raise some interesting questions for academic libraries. One of its recommendations is that academic libraries need to be clearer about what they are doing to help faculty understand exactly what the library can and is providing.

“An important lesson is that the library is in many ways falling off the radar screens of faculty. Although scholars report general respect for libraries and librarians, the library is increasingly disintermediated from their actual research processes.”

and

“In the case of the library, both the library leadership as well as individual librarians should be reaching out to faculty members, formally and informally, to understand the nature of their teaching and research projects, and how their needs are being met or could be met better.”

This process can not happen if librarians sit in their offices or at the desk waiting for faculty and students to come to them. We have to provide relevant help at the point of need and we have to determine what that help should consist of both in person and online. Asking our faculty what they need from us should be an ongoing process and the more librarians understand of these needs, the more effective we can be. if we allow ourselves to become invisible to those we serve we make ourselves redundant.