Is the physical experience of holding a book or other paper-based object really the most valued aspect of library provision these days? And are researchers only able to cope with the world of information if their access to resources is limited to what the library can afford to provide? In a THES-sponsored debate held at the British Library last week, as part of their ‘Growing Knowledge’ exhibition, Mary Beard give a highly entertaining and deliberately controversial perspective on what she values in the academic library – and although she acknowledged the value of the digital resource, her personal view was that the paper artifact and the pre-selection process of library collections’ policies are both crucial to the future academic environment. Her views were challenged by Clive Bloom who considered that the sentimental view of paper as automatically giving additional insight to knowledge was flawed, and that the flexibility delivery mode and breadth of information that can be offered through digital publications vastly outweighs the value of paper. And in terms of the democratization of knowledge, and trying to offer a rich knowledge environment to as broad a range of people as possible – including at a global scale – digital is the only feasible approach.
We must be careful not to be too stereotyped and simplistic in our views, as this leads only to unhelpful and diversive views. Clearly, there is still an essential need to protect and maintain access to unique primary resources. There is equally a clear need to try to make as many high quality resources as possible available to learners - including citizen scientists and school children who are just starting out on their educational journey – and to researchers. In times of challenging funding cuts, libraries need to judge carefully who it is that they are trying to support and how they can get most value from their budgets. Libraries have a long and successful history of collaboration and sharing resources, through services such as the inter-library loan system, through regional collaborations such as the M25 group and through shared use of the JISC Collections Company. It now seems urgent that libraries consider how they can achieve even more value for their users through collaboration, including more partnership with public and school libraries, whilst continuing to evolve the specialized support that they provide to their key user communities.
