Trends in Digital University Libraries*
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Trends in Digital University Libraries* Jay Jordan** Cooperation in the digital future is a topic of great interest for OCLC and for the university libraries Resumen that participate in our El autor discute cinco tendencias en bibliotecas digitales international cooperative. universitarias: 1) comunicación académica; 2) desarrollo Trends in Digital de depósitos institucionales; 3) preservación y University Libraries is a almacenamiento digital; 4) metadatos, y 5) hábitos de very large topic because, información de estudiantes. La cooperación será el elemento as we all know, clave en la evolución de la biblioteca digital. (FRRE) librarianship has been in period of extended and Palabras clave: bibliotecas digitales, archivos digitales, almost continuous cooperación bibliotecaria, comunicación académica, change since the advent depósitos institucionales, metadatos, hábitos de información. of the first computers in (FRRE) libraries, now over 30 years ago. Abstract The author discusses five trends in digital university University libraries are going through a period of libraries: 1) scholarly communication; 2) development of tremendous change, and we should view this as an institutional repositories; 3) digital preservation and exciting time to be in the profession. I would like to archiving; 4) metadata; and 5) information habits of share with you a statement written by a distinguished university students. As the digital library continues to librarian and the founder of OCLC, Frederick G. Kilgour, evolve, cooperation will be a key element. on the nature of change in librarianship. Keywords: digital libraries, librarian cooperation, digital "Libraries now find themselves forced to a dynamic archives, scholarly communication, institutional repositories, state of instability, which should not be confused metadata, information habits. with insecurity. Since the age of Pericles, the * Conferencia magistral presentada en la Conferencia Internacional sobre Bibliotecas Universitarias "La cooperación en el futuro digital", organizada por la Dirección General de Bibliotecas de la UNAM. Ciudad de México, D.F., 26 y 27 de septiembre de 2002. Mesa redonda, "Tendencias en las bibliotecas digitales universitarias", celebrada el 26 de septiembre de 2002. ** President and CEO, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-3395, Estados Unidos. [email protected] BIBL. UNIV., NUEVA ÉPOCA, JULIO-DICIEMBRE 2002, VOL 5, No. 2 P. 115-129 115 Trends in Digital University Libraries unstable periods in human history have been the As we build these digital university libraries, the more most productive periods. Certainly, the period of things change, the more they remain the same. instability into which libraries are now entering after Libraries still collect, organize, provide access, and a long period of changelessness will be one of the preserve information. But, as you know, the variety intellectually productive periods in librarianship”.1 of resources that libraries work with, and of tools available to them, has increased significantly. They Fred Kilgour wrote that before the appearance of the are using new electronic tools that until recently were World Wide Web. Indeed, he wrote it in 1966. Nearly only dreamed of. They find themselves having to 40 years later, we are still in an age of instability, and collect and organize materials that range from terra if we are lucky, it will continue, because although we cotta cones to e-mail. The library without walls has have made much progress, we still have much to do. become a reality. You no longer go to the library, the While Fred looked at this as another Age of Pericles, library comes to you. In this paper, I will briefly address trends in digital university libraries in five areas: 1) scholarly communication; 2) development of institutional repositories; 3) digital preservation and archiving; 4) metadata; and 5) information habits of university students. At the outset, I will focus not only on technology, but also on people and institutions. As Michael Lesk has pointed out: "Building digital libraries is not just a question of piling up disk drives; it involves creating an entire organization of machines and people, perhaps even a culture, in which people are able to find information and use it".2 Let me explore the first aspect of this culture, which is scholarly communication. other librarians have looked upon as the ancient 1) Scholarly Communication. Digital publishing Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times". technologies are forcing a fundamental change in the Either way, we are in the middle of building digital structure of scholarly communication. This audience university libraries. is all too familiar with the issues and sometimes conflicting needs of scholars, university libraries and 1 KILGOUR, Frederick G. Implications for the Future of Reference/Information Service. In: Collected Papers of Frederick G. Kilgour, OCLC Years. Dublin, Ohio : OCLC, 1984, p. 14. 2 LESK, Michael. Practical Digital Libraries: Books, Bytes, and Bucks. San Francisco, California : M. Kauffman, 1997. p. 5. BIBL. UNIV., NUEVA ÉPOCA, JULIO-DICIEMBRE 2002, VOL 5, No. 2 116 Jay Jordan publishers. In the existing publishing model, publishers The academic community has put forth proposals to acquire and distribute the scholarly output from reassert control over the scholarship produced by academic communities and then resell it to those the academy. Marshall Keyes has summarized these same communities, with the publisher retaining proposals as follows: "Librarians can spin endless copyright of the scholarly information. At the same scenarios about the future of electronic scholarly time, costs of scholarly journals and publications have publishing. In the most benign, colleges and universities steadily escalated, which in turn reduces library declare all faculty research to be 'work done for pay,' budgets for monographs. Over the past twenty years, allowing institutions to claim copyright for written the prices of scholarly journals have greatly exceeded material as they do now for patents. The institution ordinary inflation. After almost a decade of data then cooperates with libraries and scholarly associations collection, certain trends have become clear. The to make this material available to the world at a low average percentage of the library materials budget cost. The opposite scenario… has publishers breaking that is spent on electronic materials was 16.25 percent up journals and charging high fees for individual in 2000-01, nearly five times as much as in 1992-93. articles".4 Almost $132 million was reported spent on electronic resources in 2000-01, by 106 universities. There are To date, one of the most ambitious and most well some ARL librarians who believe that this figure is known initiatives in scholarly publishing is an initiative actually higher than reported and growing. of the Association of Research Libraries called SPARC, the "Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Library budgets have been unable to keep up with Coalition". This alliance of universities, research these price increases. At the same time, library users libraries and other organizations was established in -university faculty and researchers- demand that 1998, and now has approximately 200 member scholarly journals be held in libraries as a vital part institutions in North America, Europe, Asia and of the research and communication process. Australia. SPARC's agenda focuses on enhancing broad and cost-effective access to peer-reviewed scholarship In 1987, Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory through: 1) incubation of competitive alternatives to began listing e-journals for the first time; that year, current high-priced commercial journals and digital there were 1,200 e-journals. In 1996, there were 5,517 aggregations; 2) public advocacy of fundamental e-journals, and in 2002, there were 31,888. This changes in the system and culture of scholarly steady increase in the number of e-journals is communication; and 3) education campaigns.5 worldwide. Some 15,500 are published in the U.S.In Latin America, Mexico is the leader with 278 e-journals, One of SPARC's publishing partners is BioOne, which followed by Brazil with 133 titles and Argentina with began operation last year. BioOne is a web-based 121.3 aggregation of research in the biological, ecological 3 Ulrich's International Periodical Directory. New York, N.Y. : R. R. Bowker, 2001. Irregular Serials & Annuals. 4 KEYS, Marshall. The Evolving Virtual Library : A Vision, Through a Glass, Darkly. In: The Evolving Virtual Library II. Medford, New Jersey : Information Today, 1999. p. 172. 5 SPARC : The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resource Coalition [online]. <http://www.arl.org/sparc> [August 20, 2002]. BIBL. UNIV., NUEVA ÉPOCA, JULIO-DICIEMBRE 2002, VOL 5, No. 2 117 Trends in Digital University Libraries and environmental sciences. The BioOne journals of journals. An independent not-for-profit organization, are available outside the U.S. and Canada in the OCLC ARTstor will develop, store and distribute electronically FirstSearch Electronic Collections Online service. digital images and related scholarly materials for the OCLC is providing funding for the development of study of art, architecture and other fields in the BioOne's database and is also serving as one of the humanities -particularly for teachers, students and archive sites for BioOne content. There are now 41 scholars at educational and cultural institutions. This libraries