[WEB4LIB] The next 5 years of web development

[Dan Lester]

At 09:29 AM 5/31/99 -0700, Jonathan Esterhazy wrote:
>Does anybody know of any articles that discuss how the web will impact
>academic libraries in areas like services, collections, and internal
>operations/workflow? I'm looking for something that looks forward to the
>next 4 or 5 years, that might help us plan our web development strategy over
>the same time frame.
>
>It needn't be a published or even polished document, though such would be
>welcome.

Well, this is off the top late at night, and definitely unpolished.  I 
trust others will add in their nickels worth as well.  If a number of 
people on this list haven't already written such an article, they could have.

Internal:  Continuing Intranet development.  Intranets will include all 
manuals, policies, procedures, documentation, statistics, meeting 
minutes.  No more three ring binders except on the shelves of those who 
insist on printing it all for "archival purposes" or because they can't 
deal with the change.  Training and retraining of staff will become 
increasingly important as ever more services and software are implemented.

Public service:  Well over half of journals received electronically on the 
web, with many fewer than now in paper.  This will include subscriptions to 
journals purchased separately, as well as licensed services/databases from 
content aggregators of all types.  There will continue to be struggles with 
issues of which services the library should provide and which should be 
provided by other information handling agencies on campus.  Reference 
librarians will struggle with changes in their service patterns.  Counts of 
face-to-face encounters in a "reference room" will continue to decline, as 
will "door counts" and "circulation counts".  More reference service will 
be handled via telephone, email, chat and other conferencing systems.

Technical services: There will be some resistance to cataloging all of 
these new electronic services, particularly those available from 
aggregators, as the contents of any aggregating service is a moving 
target.  It will take convincing some that this problem is not really much 
different from the problems with print journals.  At least they won't have 
to worry about claiming issues that are lost in the mail, or replacing 
those stolen by patrons.  Academic library catalogs will be web-based, but 
telnet versions will be maintained for those who want the "traditional 
version".  Libraries will permit telecommuting by the "catalogers" who 
handle web-based services.

Collection Development:  As ever more services become electronic it will 
create a real struggle between faculty who want printed materials and those 
who want electronic access.  Licensing issues will continue to be 
contentious until a fairly standard model becomes common in three to five 
years.  Libraries will continue to apply pressure on database providers who 
have excessive pricing models for web delivery (APA and ACS are prime 
examples); the providers will eventually realize that they must change.

Campus:  Ever more instruction will be based on the web and delivered to 
distant students (or nearby students who don't come to campus much).  The 
emphasis on providing continuing education services, both formal and 
informal, will increase.  This will meet resistance from traditionalist 
faculty and librarians.  As ever more instruction becomes web-based the 
library will have to decide if it is a true learning center, or wants to 
concentrate on simply providing traditional services.  Those choosing the 
former will thrive.

Top administrators will continue to experiment with alternative 
organizations of information services on campuses.  They'll find that any 
structure can work if the right people are in place to make it 
work.  Therefore, some "libraries" will merge with some "computer centers", 
while other mergers will fragment.  The same issues will continue to 
develop between "libraries" and "instructional media" operations as well.

These are just a few quick thoughts.  I might change my mind in the light 
of day.  o-)  [not really likely, but I'll be interested in the comments of 
others]

cheers

dan



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Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716 USA 208-383-0165
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