[WEB4LIB] Study: Internet Usage in Academic Libraries

[Chris Murphy]

gprice wrote:
> I just posted this blurb to the VAS&ND weblog. I think it might be of interest.
> ...
> http://www.clir.org/pubs/issues/issues27.html#national
> From the article, "Eighty percent of the students and faculty members who
> responded to a recent national survey stated that the Internet has changed
> the way in which they use campus libraries. More than one-third of the
> respondents overall and half of those in fields such as business and
> engineering now use the library less than they did just two years ago.

During the late 1980's and early 1990's, a time of budget cuts and weak economy for the 
state of Oregon, I was on the research faculty at Oregon State University. Each year I and other faculty were asked to recommend titles of scientific journals and other serials to cull because the university's library budget was axed yet again (disproportionately so, in my opinion). <tangent>Thanks to all the OSU librarians--you folks were always super.</tangent>

My experience has been 1) libraries are undervalued by many university presidents, provosts, and other executive managers; 2) expensive items such as academic journals serving relatively small populations of users are prime targets during lean budget years; 3) accumulating journal collections are expensive to store; and 4) increasingly computer literate faculty and students have more opportunities for broadband Internet access.

Probably for these reasons, I have seen greater use of online subscriptions to journals and databases; therefore, it comes as no surprise that faculty and students increasingly use the Internet to access information. If we lived in a world where physical academic journals, etc. were widely available inside the library, I believe we would see an increase in the use of the physical library for information access.

E-books have not replaced printed books mainly because people still like to hold and read a physical book and because physical books are still widely available in libraries. If libraries could no longer afford to buy popular fiction hardbacks, but could supply the text through an online source, we would probably see an increase in the number of people using the library "less than they did just two years ago".

Opinionatedly yours,

Chris Murphy

-- 
Christopher Murphy
Information Systems Manager
The Community Library, Ketchum, Idaho
chrism at thecommunitylibrary.org
http://www.thecommunitylibrary.org