1. 2014 National Library Week WAW Library Panel Discussion…my notes
As prompts for discussion, we will use a set of six factors identified in a Chronicle of Higher
Education column as contributing to the demise of academic libraries, looking back from 2050
(https://chronicle.com/article/Academic-Library-Autopsy/125767/ ). Panelists would be asked to
respond to a few of those factors in terms of whether it seems likely to happen and, if it were
to happen, how they would feel about that…and what might it look like?
Basically, I am hoping to get a sense of what we are doing that may be sowing the seeds of our
demise (part 1)
The factors are:
* Book collections became obsolete.
I think this actually means paper/printed book collections. If we’re really limiting this to
printed non-fiction books in academic libraries, then not likely to happen soon,
1) research still indicates that people (students) still prefer to do some types of reading
on paper, particularly academic work; ask the audience
2) the expense (time, money, human resources) is still too great given existing
technology
3) from the article “Some colleges have opted for institutional subscriptions to digital-book
collections, managed by their information-technology departments. Most of these
collections originated in physical libraries, which signed their own death warrants with
deals to digitize their books.” I would argue the basic point that librarians are trained to
be expert in, and, in fact, work very hard to create customized, local collections which
serve the specific and unique needs of their patrons. IT departments might be able to
handle the technological aspects of providing access to digital books but they (and the
faculty mentioned below under IT department) lack the training required for selecting
and deselecting (e.g. customizing the content) of those collections. That said, some types
of printed books have already become obsolete, such as reference books, which by their
nature (short articles, often updated, lend themselves to electronic formats.
* Information literacy was fully integrated into the curriculum.
* Libraries and librarians were subsumed by information-technology departments.
See my comments above
* Reference services disappeared.
* Economics trumped quality.
At the end of the article, the author says “it is entirely possible that the life of the academic
library could have been spared if the last generation of librarians had spent more time plotting
a realistic path to the future and less time chasing outdated trends while mindlessly spouting
mantras like "There will always be books and libraries" and "People will always need librarians
to show them how to use information." We'll never know now what kind of treatments might have
worked. Librarians planted the seeds of their own destruction and are responsible for their own
downfall.” Story of travel agents…how many in the audience have used a travel agent lately?

2. 2014 National Library Week WAW Library Panel Discussion…my notes
A second part would consist of responding to recipes posited by David Lankes from Syracuse
University's iSchool for libraries moving forward in a more positive way, from The Mission of
Librarians Is to Improve Society through Facilitating Knowledge Creation in Their Communities
(http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/?page_id=1211)
Basically, I am hoping to get a sense of what we are doing that may be sowing the seeds of our
demise (part 1) and what we should be thinking of doing in order to thrive
* Bad libraries build collections.
* Good libraries build services.
* Great libraries build communities.