Libraries of the Future brochure
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Libraries are at a turning point. As technology rapidly transforms the way we access information, and resources are increasingly available online and in digital formats, the established role of the library as a physical space housing racks of books is looking increasingly out of step with the needs of students and researchers.
Allied with technology, library users’ needs and preferences are helping to drive the change in libraries. Students, researchers and teachers now expect to be able to access information around the clock, from almost anywhere in the world and via a growing number of devices, from laptops to phones.
What does this mean for the academic library as we know it? What will it look like in 10 years’ time? Will it exist in its current physical form? What role will librarians play in supporting learning and research in the digital age?
Through the Libraries of the Future campaign JISC has opened up these questions to a stimulating and enriching discussion. The debate is grounded in JISC’s commitment to libraries and the services they offer as a vital part of the education and research infrastructure and an essential part of supporting the UK’s education system. The campaign builds on JISC’s rich history of supporting the library sector to work more effectively using technology and working in partnership with researchers and educators.
JISC has a long-established reputation working with libraries in universities and colleges to put in place change programmes and to recognise that in the age of the internet and the other digital opportunities, libraries must rethink the way they work and the way that they support learning, teaching and research.
The Libraries of the Future campaign has taken this debate to a wider audience, through high-profile debates, publications and newspaper supplements and through the new technologies themselves, from social networks to Twitter and Second Life.
JISC campaigns
For many years technology has been transforming education and research, bringing about profound changes to the ways in which learners, teachers, librarians, administrators and researchers undertake their work. JISC campaigns are an attempt to initiate conversations about the issues that are emerging as central to the sector. The further and higher education sectors have responded quickly and effectively to change, harnessing the potential of technology to support, for example, access to a wide range of online resources, widening participation, more student-centred approaches to learning, innovative, complex and distributed research collaborations, and much more. However, many challenges remain. While some of these challenges may be better addressed at the institutional level, others may benefit from broader approaches or from national debates about how technology can be fully integrated into the life and work of colleges and universities and help ensure that UK education and research remain among the best in the world.
JISC is at the forefront of many of the issues that have an impact on education and research and JISC ‘campaigns’ are an attempt to initiate conversations – with national organisations and with practitioners, researchers, librarians, senior managers, administrators and others – about the issues that are emerging as central to the sector. As well as the Libraries of the Future campaign – the focus of this brochure – JISC recently ran a Student Experiences of Technology campaign. |