Value of academic libraries

The American Library Association (ALA) has just published a useful report: ‘Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report’.

You can download the report from http://www.acrl.ala.org/value/

Challenges for academic libraries in difficult economic times

A new guide from the Research Information Network focuses on how academic librarians are experiencing and responding to financial cuts in the current economic climate.

Based upon data gathered in the UK and internationally, and focus groups with senior librarians during late 2009, the guide looks at the financial position of libraries, their strategies for dealing with challenging economic circumstances, and the value of libraries.

After a decade of growth in budgets and services, academic librarians now expect a sustained period of cuts over the next three to five years. The scale of these cuts means librarians are having to reconsider the kinds and levels of service they can provide in support of their universities missions. 

This guide shows how librarians are responding to the issues of balancing expenditure between information resources and staffing and how they plan to sustain levels of service, as well as developing new services to meet new needs. It demonstrates that library directors need the support of senior managers across the higher education sector, as well as from publishers and other information providers, to help address the challenges, as well as the opportunities, faced.

The guide is available to download from this link  along with a short two-page briefing.

The economic downturn and libraries

 A global survey of the world’s academic and research libraries reveals that two thirds of institutions expect to cut spending on information resources in the next two years. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/ciber/charleston-survey.pdf

2020: a prophecy

NLW has recently published on its website a paper entitled ’2020: a long view of the National Library of Wales’.

http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/documents/pdf/Vision.pdf

The paper tries to identify the most significant factors – economic, political, social and technological – that are likely to affect the Library over the next ten years.  It goes on to suggest how the Library itself will develop over the same period.  There will be major changes in collecting, many propelled by digital developments, and in the way users and collections interact.  A much more prominent role is proposed for the Library as an educational institution, and its relationship with local institutions in Wales may well change in radical ways.

This is not a consultation paper, but comments on it are very welcome.  It will be the subject of a talk and discussion at the Welsh Libraries Conference in Llandrindod Wells on 14 May.

Average academic book price report re-launched

LISU has now re-launched its Average Prices of Academic Books series, with a single publication covering both UK and USA titles for the academic year July 2008 to June 2009.

The full press release can be found at:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/lisu/pages/pr/bp1pr.html

Impact of the economic recession on university library and IT services

A very timely report produced for JISC, SCONUL & UCISA.

The main focus of this research was to assess the impact of the economic downturn on university library and IT services. 40 interviews were conducted with representatives of each of these services in 36 different institutions across the UK.

Download the full report or read the briefing paper at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/libsitimpacts.aspx