Research/Learning
Libraries are not ends in themselves but support the goals of their communities. Research and learning behaviors drive academic library change.

University Futures are shaping Library Futures
Libraries are not ends in themselves, but serve the interests of the organizations of which they are a part. As university emphasis varies around research, education and career poles, we can expect to see libraries evolve to support those emphases more strongly.

The university's curatorial role
I made a note in these pages [https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/001766.html] a couple of years ago about the University of Edinburgh’s mission statement. > The University’s mission is the creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge. The occasion was Chris Rusbridge’s justified pleasure [https://digitalcuration.
Using Wikipedia
We still don’t appear to know what to make of Wikipedia. Consider these two cases. First, Edward Glaeser includes a reference to Wikipedia in the acknowledgements to his new book, Triumph of the city [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/650211168]. > Following common practices, Wikipedia is not listed in the
Managing down collections ...
I was interested to read this from Karen Schneider [https://freerangelibrarian.com/2010/09/04/the-west-project-the-first-shoe-drops-for-the-big-shift/] a while ago: “Centralized mass storage for legacy print materials (paper-based books and journals) is by far the most under-observed trend in libraries today”. I agree, with the friendly qualification that the trend is
Evolving research life ...
I was interviewed for the British Library’s Growing Knowledge: the evolution of research [https://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/Default.aspx] exhibition, which opened last week. I have not seen the physical installation yet but there is an online presence [https://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/Default.aspx]. See the gallery
The infrastructure is getting thicker ..
Andy Powell has a nice post [https://efoundations.typepad.com/efoundations/2010/10/what-current-trends-tell-us-about-the-future-of-federated-access-management-in-education.html] on general trends in educational use of networking. The context is a reflection on the future of federated access management but the points he makes are more generally interesting. He talks about the economic situation,