Reimagining the Academic Library
By (author) David W. Lewis
Publication date:
12 May 2016Length of book:
192 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781442238572
Academic libraries are in the midst of significant disruption. Academic librarians and university administrators know they need to change, but are not sure how. Bits and pieces of what needs to happen are clear, but the whole picture is hard to grasp.
Reimagining the Academic Library paints a simple straightforward picture of the changes affecting academic libraries and what academic librarians need to do to respond to the changes would help to guide future library practice. The aim is to explain where academic libraries need to go and how to get there in a book that can be read in a weekend.
David Lewis provides a readable survey of the current state of academic library practice and proposes where academic libraries need to go in the future to provide value to their campuses. His primary focus is on collections as this is the area with the greatest opportunity for change and is the driver of most library cost. Lewis provides an accessible framework for thinking about how library practice needs to adjust in the digital environment.
The book will be useful not only to academic librarians, but also for librarians to share with presidents and provosts who a concise source for understanding where and how to focus their expenditures on libraries.
Reimagining the Academic Library paints a simple straightforward picture of the changes affecting academic libraries and what academic librarians need to do to respond to the changes would help to guide future library practice. The aim is to explain where academic libraries need to go and how to get there in a book that can be read in a weekend.
David Lewis provides a readable survey of the current state of academic library practice and proposes where academic libraries need to go in the future to provide value to their campuses. His primary focus is on collections as this is the area with the greatest opportunity for change and is the driver of most library cost. Lewis provides an accessible framework for thinking about how library practice needs to adjust in the digital environment.
The book will be useful not only to academic librarians, but also for librarians to share with presidents and provosts who a concise source for understanding where and how to focus their expenditures on libraries.
Beginning with the premise that in order to create an academic library that meets scholarly needs, we first need to have a vision or image of this future institution, Lewis reimagines academic libraries using educator and scholar Clayton Christensen’s idea of disruptive innovation as a launching point. The author of numerous articles on academic libraries and scholarly communication, Lewis urges academic libraries to develop new business models and 'find opportunities to be the disrupter who develops new services and products that use the available technologies' or face obsolescence. Proposing a blueprint or 'road,' the author divides the chapters into two parts: the forces we face and the steps down the road. Including input from many library professionals, the concluding chapter outlines what steps need to happen: retiring the print collection, developing a design plan, hiring and developing the needed staff expertise, selling the change, etc.
VERDICT: An important resource for academic librarians, higher education administrators, and those involved in strategic planning to help guide the discussions of how to allocate library resources.
VERDICT: An important resource for academic librarians, higher education administrators, and those involved in strategic planning to help guide the discussions of how to allocate library resources.