There is a very interesting summary of a research report by the Chronicle of
Higher Education, "The College of 2020" (available at:
http://research.chronicle.com/asset/TheCollegeof2020ExecutiveSummary.pdf?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en).
They discuss the various changes in colleges and on page 2 they write:
"Colleges must be ready to offer all those options. The challenge will be to
provide them simultaneously and be flexible enough to change the methods as
the market changes. Faculty members must be flexible, too. The Internet has
made most information available to everyone, and faculty members must take
that into consideration when teaching. There is very little that students
cannot find on their own if they are inspired to do so. And many of them
will be surfing the Net in class. The faculty member, therefore, may become
less an oracle and more an organizer and guide, someone who adds perspective
and context, finds the best articles and research, and sweeps away
misconceptions and bad information."
It is very interesting how they predict that it will be the faculty member
and not the librarian who will "find the best articles and research and
sweeps away misconceptions and bad information."
How do they propose that faculty members can discover the best articles and
research? What tools will they use? Will it only be through Google searches,
blogs and email lists?
Also noteworthy is the statement, "There is very little that students cannot
find on their own if they are inspired to do so" which is certainly anything
but my own experience. Using the term "inspiration" seems a bit out of place
as well. What I have seen is that students take very little interest in
these matters until they are quite literally forced into it. Some may take a
genuine, if temporary, interest in their classes, and I believe I have even
"inspired" some students myself. Still, I find it a very strange use of the
term. Someone's "inspiration" can't help them much when they are "finding."
Instead, people have to know how to use the tools at their disposal.
I admit that it may not be fair to criticize a report only through the
executive summary (although that is all most people will read anyway,
especially when you have to pay $75 or more for the full report), so I am
sure I am missing some vital information.
Still, I am sure it will be a major report and provides an insight into some
of the modern views of information retrieval held by non-librarians.
Jim Weinheimer
Received on Tue Jun 23 2009 - 06:02:43 EDT