Interesting report about the future of academic libraries in "Inside Higher Ed"...
Steve Kolowich. Libraries of the Future. Inside Higher Ed, September 24, 2009.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/24/libraries
An interesting statement (not a direct quote) attributed to Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning and programs at the University of California System:
"Greenstein said he expects universities to outsource other library duties as well. Cataloging can be contracted out to providers such as Google, he said, and research data services are increasingly springing up directly out of academic departments."
At first I had a good laugh when I read the bit about contracting cataloging out to Google, in light of the recent uproar about Google's metadata. But then I decided it was kinda scary that a higher ed administrator was saying this. We can talk and talk among ourselves about the high quality of library metadata, but if the folks who control the purse strings don't see its value then we're screwed.
Bernie Sloan
Received on Thu Sep 24 2009 - 09:55:16 EDT