Avoiding the Path to Obsolescence

Interesting American Libraries article

Academic Library Autopsy Report, 2050

"The academic library has died. Despite early diagnosis, audacious denial in the face of its increasingly severe symptoms led to its deterioration and demise..."

New Technologies Dispense With Librarians

"Faced with layoffs and budget cuts, libraries around the country are replacing traditional, full-service institutions with devices that may be redefining what it means to have a library."

More Bibliophiles Get on the Same Page With Digital Readers

"An estimated 4 million U.S. homes have an e-book reader such as Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble's Nook, according to Forrester Research, which predicts sales of more than 29 million devices by 2015."

Articles on Ebooks from Library Journal

"In preparation for the daylong virtual summit Ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point, on September 29, from Library Journal and School Library Journal, LJ’s editors have gathered just a few of the many voices exploring the problems and potential of the move to broad ebook use and where libraries fit in."

Trading Spaces: Science Libraries Confront Print's Decline

"The engineering libraries at Stanford and Cornell universities are swapping their place as repositories of print materials for bigger online collections."

Stanford Ushers In The Age Of Bookless Libraries

"Stanford University's School of Engineering had more books than its library could hold. So school administrators built a new library -- with even less space for books. NPR's Laura Sydell reports that Stanford's counterintuitive solution marks a definite move toward digital collections over print."

Academic Libraries Must Keep Redefining Themselves

"The libraries will have to continue expanding their virtual resources and devote physical space to support services, says a report."

The Librarian's Crystal Ball

"A major libraries association makes some bold predictions about the future of higher education."

21st-Century Research Collections: Mostly Digital, Ever Larger

"Can a new research library be all digital? How much does it cost a library to preserve a codex? What do large-scale text-digitizing projects mean for scholarship in the humanities? Those are driving questions behind a new report, 'The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship,' released today by the Council on Library and Information Resources."

Libraries of the Future

"The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas. That's what Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning and programs at the University of California System, told a room full of university librarians Wednesday at Baruch College of City University of New York, where the higher education technology group Ithika held a meeting to discuss 'sustainable scholarship.'"