Culture Morph

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The Digital Library

Culture Morph

6/1/2007

By Susan D. Heid

But many faculty still are not versed in the use of the new technologies, he acknowledges. "They may have had a pretty good understanding of scholarly literature and the bibliographic apparatus of the field, but when the technology came along, they suddenly lost their grip--particularly in colleges where the primary role of faculty is teaching and, secondarily, research," he notes. "They didn't stay current with the new tools."

Interestingly, as the technology provided more information resources, the librarians' role (in terms of the faculty) became more and more one of mentoring and teaching, says Kirk. And that shift placed the librarian into the position of collaborating with the faculty member. "We have a tradition here of the faculty coming to the librarian and saying, 'I've been thinking of creating this kind of assignment. How would I do this? What resources do we have that would allow me to set up this kind of assignment?' This gets us into questions about what collections are available, how to gain access to them, how to use them--and perhaps the most important question--how to evaluate the resources that are found."

Importantly, with one person in the dual role of CIO and head librarian, silos can effectively be dismantled. "It's essential that there be a lot of communication between computing services and the library," he asserts. "I do think it's important that the library and computing areas report to the same person. I've seen situations where Computing reports to the business side of the college and the Library reports to the academic side. [When that happens,] you have to get to two VPs to achieve resolution on issues."

Kirk believes that by merging the library and IT areas, his advantage lies in a true functional view of the combined organization. "A lot of this stuff on the merged organization pays too much attention to where the walls are and how people report, rather than looking at what people are doing, who they're talking to, and who's [effectively] communicating with whom."

Creating a Digital Library Hub

When Immaculata University (PA)-- formerly an all-girls Catholic school-- redesigned its Gabriele Library in 1994, administrators went for the "state-ofthe- art" facility of the day, and provided a computer lab, a digital card catalog, and 10 electronic databases (on CD).

VIEWING THE GABRIELE Library as the center of information and collaboration, Immaculata U administrators decided to house the tech folks in the building.

Today, the university boasts a resource center that's the perfect melding of library and IT--and nothing like the hushed study centers of yesteryear. "When you walk in, the first floor is filled with students talking with each other," says Jeff Rollison, executive director of the library. "It's very much a place where students meet and work collaboratively."