论图书馆向信息枢纽之转型----从学术视角展望美好城市生活.doc

Transforming Library towards an Information Hub:Academic Perspectives for Better City Life论图书馆向信息枢纽之转型- 从学术视角展望美好城市生活Hong Cheng, PhDUCLA LibraryAbstractIn a networked post-industrialization world, library is undoubtedly facing unprecedented challenges. Will library continue to exit in 7-10 years? The answer is yes and no. Traditional library, as an element of city life for centuries, is certainly vanishing; on the other hand, new type of library is emerging as an information hub for post-industrialization city life. This article is to observe such transformation from the perspectives of academic and professional research.Fundamental changes hit academic and research library first, and certain key functions of a traditional library tend to be unnecessary, or even unimportant, to the post-industrialization city life. Shared collection, service outsourcing, patron driven selection and so on virtually undermine the foundation of a traditional library. In many circumstances, librarys traditional functions can be greatly carried on by other social elements, commercial or non-commercial. Traditional library is undoubtedly fading and vanishing, and the transformation of library becomes unavoidable.There are many contradictions emerging in the process of library transformation, such as non-profit vs. corporate, people focused vs. technology driven, physical team vs. virtual net, etc. Behind these contradictions, we can see some factors that complicate the process. In the academic or professional world, these factors could be disciplinary, technical, economical, psychological, cultural and managerial. The existence of such factors determines that library will retain as a major provider for peoples information need.While the traditional functions are fading and vanishing, library, as an information hub, is actively playing new roles. Major academic and research libraries begin to cover the areas that traditional library virtually never involves in, such as scholarly communication, including open access and repository; digitizing and archiving; special and specialized collections; library initiated research and publishing; and library as a learning, cultural and social center. These roles gradually demonstrate a new picture, a post-industrialization library that meets the information needs of a networked world. Better library, better city, and better life.摘要在一个网络化的后工业化世界，图书馆无疑面临空前的挑战。图书馆还能继续生存七至十年吗？答案既是肯定的，又是否定的。作为许多世纪以来城市生活一个部分的传统图书馆，毫无疑问地在消亡，而新兴的图书馆正作为后工业城市生活的信息枢纽而崛起。本文即是从学术和专业视角来考察这一转型。根本性的变化首先冲击到学术和研究图书馆，传统图书馆的一些关键性的功能对后工业化城市生活来说变得不再必要，甚至不再重要。资源共享、服务外包、读者选书诸如此类的出现，近乎掏空了传统图书馆的基础。在许多情况下，图书馆的传统功能为社会的商业性的或非商业性的其他要素所取代。传统的图书馆无疑在消亡，图书馆的转型成为不可避免的趋势。图书馆转型的过程中存在多对矛盾，诸如非盈利还是公司化、读者为主还是技术导向、实体化团队还是虚拟网络等等。在这些矛盾的背后，我们可以看到一些因素是转型的过程复杂化。在学术和专业领域，这些因素或许出自学科、技术、经济、心理、文化、或管理的范畴。正因为这些因素的存在，决定了图书馆将继续作为满足需求的主要信息提供者。随着传统功能的消亡，作为信息枢纽的图书馆积极地扮演着新的角色。主要的学术和研究图书馆开始涉足到前所未及的领域，诸如学术传播，包括通路开放及资源储存；数码化和数码化存档；特藏和专藏；图书馆缘起的研究和出版；以及图书馆成为学习、文化和社交的中心。这些领域展现了一幅崭新的前景图画，一个适应信息化社会需求的后工业化图书馆。一个更完美的图书馆服务于一个更美好的城市，会给人们带来更美好的生活。The birth of library was accompanied with the rise of cities in early modern history. The development from privately stored collections to public accessible libraries is a historical progress that came with global modernization. In the historical process beginning with the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, city became the center of human society, and meanwhile library was always an organic part of the city life.As history entering a new era of post-industrialization, will library keep growing with the urbanization of the world? There are some assumptions on the future of the library. We are unable to simply label these assumptions as true or false; instead, through analyzing these assumptions, we can better understand the challenges that library is facing, and discover the solutions as library transferring towards an information hub of the post-industrial era.Assumption One. The Last Library Is Closing in 2019During the annual meeting of the Council on East Asian Libraries, an affiliation of the Association for Asian Studies, in March 2010, a UC Berkeley faculty member alerted that “the last library is closing in 2019,” which caught many conference attendees attention. Earlier on September 23, 2009, Dr. Daniel Greenstein, Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Programs at the University of California System, told a room full of university librarians at the City University of New York, that “The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas.” “News: Libraries of the Future”, in Inside Higher Ed. In other words, library, especially academic or research library, once as a main supporting pillar of academic research, might be dismembered over the next decade.The assumption of library dismembering came might come up much earlier. Bolner and Poirier mentioned that, as the information age comes, “some are predicting a totally electronic library in which all materials and services will be in electronic formatOthers are predicting that library buildings as we know them will no longer exist, and information will be transmitted to individuals electronically.” Bolner and Poirier, 1997: p. 6. No matter whether the assumptions are true or false, library does lose its key functions in many aspects. We can roughly browse the three major functions of a typical library, collection management, technical service and public service.Collection is traditionally the core of library services. For hundreds of years after the Renaissance and later the Industrial Revolution, handwritten and then printed materials were the dominating resource for peoples information need. In turn, Library, as a physical location of such resource, became the center of human knowledge for centuries. As a logical result, the quantity and quality of the physical collection was a main measure for library.The emerging of digital resources gradually changed the circumstance. Especially with the growth of online electronic resources, physical location of information resource became no longer a major concern to users. Rather, “access is a critical component of any web-based resource.” Pettijohn, Patricia. “Collection Development for Virtual Libraries”, in Hanson and Levin, 2003: p. 26. From collection-based to access-centered, the transformation has gradually undermined the foundation of the traditional library. The truth is that a virtual library without physical collection could be a great powerhouse in information service. In addition, new methods such as “patron driven selection” make the collection development no longer a specialty or privilege of library bibliographers. With the expansion of online networking, the direct involvement of university faculty members and researchers becomes truly possible.With computer networking, library collection management gradually evolves towards access management. Professional librarians suddenly realize that they are no longer facing a collection they know very well; rather, they are facing something they do not always know, the untouchable electronic resources. At UCLA Libraries, the bio-medical library spends about 95 percent of its collection budget for such electronic resources. The science-engineering library spends about 85 percent of the collection budget. Even at the East Asian library, which emphasizes mainly on humanities and social sciences, its Chinese section has spent about 50 percent for electronic access in Academic Year 2009-2010. No one clearly knows what our collection would look like in 6 to 10 years. It certainly posts a challenge to the library.Technical service, such as acquisitions, processing, cataloging, etc., is to make the library materials available to users. As the most exclusive part of the library services, the technical service requires special knowledge and skills.In recent years, “shelf ready” acquisitions and outsourcing cataloging are favored by many campus and library administrators. “Shelf ready” acquisitions and outsourcing cataloging are commonly assumed as a way to save money and manpower for cataloging. However, as many insiders know, the commercial cataloging firms that offer “shelf ready” acquisitions and outsourcing cataloging are principally replying on two kinds of manpower. First, skilled catalogers trained by libraries, who are the backbone of the firms. Thus, if one day library dismembered its cataloging force, it could eventually exhaust the capacity of commercial cataloging firms as well. Second, unskilled workers, for maximizing the profit. In reality, “shelf ready” acquisitions and outsourcing cataloging cannot be a solution for reducing operating cost. It might be useful to small libraries with no technical service, or to some temporary projects. It is just moving some library functions to the commercial sector. It might lead to downsizing the library, but it would not really challenge the existing structure of the library.The true challenge to librarys technical service is computer networking. Nationwide and international network-based cooperation, such as OCLC and PCC, is definitely shrinking the technical service in individual libraries. Furthermore, computer networking could raise true threat to the existing cataloging structure rooted in the card catalog period. Some basic elements of the cataloging structure, such as subject headings or name authorities, tend to be overridden by much more powerful keyword searching and linking powered by computer networking. In recent years, image and sound start to be introduced to the cataloging structure. So far we do not have a clear picture of future technical service. One thing we are expecting is that a revolutionary or even subversive change of cataloging practice is brewing, which could fundamentally reshape the technical service in 6 to 10 years.Public service, including circulation, reference service, interlibrary loan and library instruction, is the service that users directly and specifically get from the library; in other words, it is the end product of the library. Electronic resource has certainly changed the way of public service. Circulation is being significantly reduced in size. Interlibrary loan is often restricted by licensing agreements on electronic resources. Reference service gets a new face of online chatting. Web pages, blogs and wikis provide new kinds of library instruction. In fact, all these changes are with the framework of the existing public service. They are expansions and extensions of the traditional public service within the same framework, which would lead to evolutional, not revolutionary, changes to the library structure.As I see, the key element in public service is relation, the relationship between the library and its user. In the traditional structure, library basically plays a supporting role to faculty and students. Library staffs are often advisors, consultants, or even assistants to the users. They are working closely with the users, but never part of them. A fundamental transformation of the public service is the change of the relationship towards partnership. In the next 6 to 10 years, changing relationship will reshape many contents of the public service. Although so far we are unable to demonstrate a clear picture, we can feel the pulse of the movement underneath.As we observed, all the three major library sections are experiencing major changes in the post-industrial era. In the process of such transformation, fundamental changes hit academic and research library seriously, and certain dramatic changes of the key library functions virtually undermine the foundation of a traditional library. Traditional library is undoubtedly fading and vanishing, and the transformation of library becomes unavoidable. At this point, it is reasonable to assume that traditional library is closing by 2019 or so; however, more importantly, we should be aware of the rising of new type of library, which I will discuss in coming sections.Assumption Two. Technology Will Eventually Replace LibraryWe have seen so many predictions that, with the emergence and expansion of information technology, library will be eventually dismembered or replaced. The most common term is “Googlization”, which describes the growing creep of Googles search technologies and the aesthetics into more and more web application and contexts, as well as tradition-rich institutions such as the library. Salkever, Alex. “Google Here, There, and Everywhere,” in BusinessWeek Online. 16, December 2003: p. 1. We should especially mention the Google Books Library Project, which is an effort by Google to scan and make searchable the collections of several major research libraries. The project and Googles Partner Program comprise Google Book Search. Along with bibliographic information, snippets of text from a book are often viewable. If a book is out of copyright and in the public domain, the book is fully available to read or to download. People seem to have reason to assume that, eventually one day, a monster-like “Google Global knowledge Base” which includes all the human knowledge would replace libraries in the world, and would be the only information source people ever need to access. Even if a “Google Global knowledge Base” is unable to rule the intelligent world alone, several or more of such databases are more than enough to replace all the libraries.This rosy picture excites not only the designers of the Google Books Library Project, but also many end users especially the Netgen students. However, after a second thought, we can easily find out that the picture is more theoretical than practical, and more ideal than realistic. Theoretically and technically, with rapid development of information technology, digitalizing all the human knowledge is feasible. Fortunately or unfortunately, technical factor is not the only factor in the process. Even just considering the technical factor, there are many contradictions emerging, such as non-profit vs. corporate, people focused vs. technology driven, physical team vs. virtual net, etc. Beyond these technical contradictions, we can see much more factors that complicate the process. In the academic or professional world, these factors could be disciplinary, economic, psychological, cultural, social and managerial. The disciplinary factor comes from individual academic disciplines in sciences, social sciences and humanities. Research in each discipline has specific characteristics and requirements. As an advantage of academic libraries, specialized library professionals, who often earned advanced degrees in related disciplines, not only well understand the disciplinary fields, but might also know the specific ongoing projects that teaching and research faculty are pursuing. These library professionals have vision on future development of the disciplinary fields, and strategically plan for such development, usually ahead of the requests from teaching and research faculties. The library professionals effort offers exceptional value to the disciplinary fields, which mega-databases or any remote online services is never able to match.The economic or financial factor is directly related to the tough issue, money. As Henczel mentioned, “the economic environment in which an organization operates influences many of its business activities.” Henczel, 2001: p. 3. The truth is that there is no unlimited funding to support such ambition for a “global knowledge base.” Even to the economic monsters like Google, it is impossible for them to have unlimited financial capacity and power collecting all the resources they are interested. On the other end, the users might be more likely lack of funding to acquire the database they need. Practically, the economic or financial factor has increasingly been the primary factor in many cases. Under a difficult budget situation, acquiring information resource has to be selective, which becomes the job of well trained library professionals who thoroughly understand their users need and are able to work with vendors for maximizing the benefit from every penny spent. So long as the budget funding is not unlimited, the selection and negotiation by library professionals is necessary.The psychological factor is rooted deeply in the academic world. Global knowledge bases might be attractive to a high school or college student; however, especially in humanities and social sciences, a research scholar would not allow all the resource materials coming from the same commonly accessible mega-databases. Psychologically, using some resources not commonly available in mega-databases could distinguish the individual research ability from others, and upgrade the value of the research. No matter how hard the mega-databases try to be comprehensive, research scholars can always dig out something not included in the databases. The philosophy of research is to discover and to find out new knowledge that never covered by existing knowledge. Logically, library collections differed or distinguished from mega-databases are highly favored by researchers. No matter how those mega-databases expand, there are always rooms and fans for library special and specialized collections.The cultural, and possibly political, factor is unavoidable in building global knowledge bases. “Globalization is generally understood as referring to the expansion of networks of interdependence spanning national boundaries that follows the increasingly rapid movement of ideas, money, goods, services, and people across these borders. While its economic effects are widely recognized, knowledgeable observers also