LIBRARIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: implications for publishers

Introduction
This report sets out to explore how libraries are changing in the face of increasing usage of digital information. It considers how publishers work together with libraries and what they can do to ensure that their content is suited to the way in which libraries are evolving.

The range of materials offered by the library are broader in the networked world, and today may include print and online books, journals, newspapers, periodicals, microfilm, audio files, video files and art works. The community of users served by a library might be the general public, or members of a university, faculty, school or company. Core library services usually include access to the library?s resources, reference services, and education and ad hoc support on access to the library?s materials, but the internet now offers a new opportunity for librarians to forge new channels of communication and offer new services to their patrons.

The amount of electronic material held by libraries of all kinds is increasing. According to research carried out by EPS for the British Library in 2005, by the year 2020 40% of UK research monographs will be available in electronic format only, while a further 50% will be produced in both print and digital.

Digitisation is posing fundamental challenges to how the library can perform its rôle. Building collections of material and making them accessible for both current and future generations is one of the core functions of a library.

Publishers have a key rôle in working with library customers to resolve the issues they face as they evolve to meet the demand of IT literate users. Effective communications will be vital to ensuring that publishers can meet the changing needs of their library customers.

Library Users
How are libraries adapting to the changing needs of their users? Not all users have the same needs, and it is important that libraries focus on ways to help different sorts of users.

Digital natives, a term used to mean younger users who have grown up using computers and the internet, may be unlikely to wholly understand the point of libraries. For a digital native, a library cannot compete with the amount of data on the web.

At a time when libraries are in danger of seeming irrelevant to some digital native users, this is increasingly a problem, as students no longer need to visit their library building so frequently - they can access all of the content they need from their internet browser. Publishers can play a part in helping libraries maintain their profile.

Technological innovations have enabled libraries to improve the service they offer to older people. Access is one example, with public libraries now offering services where books are sent through the post to older users, or provided through mobile services, rather than being unavailable to those who can?t physically get to the library.

Academic libraries
A common complaint by academics is the pervasiveness of Google as the typical student?s only research tool. This has led to many students using Google and its first few results as their only research - which is not encouraging the development of critical research skills. Academic libraries are taking on the challenge of this ?google-isation? of student research by educating users in methods of research and the importance of quality sources, but many librarians despair of the effect they can have and the apparent threat to research that Google poses.

On the surface, Google Scholar represents the ?holy grail? for academic librarians - it provides a free way for their students to search across a huge amount of academic content without them needing to classify the content, or provide anything other than the most basic training. But librarians are uneasy about promoting Google Scholar to their students because they do not know what it does and doesn?t search - there is no such thing as a ?Google Scholar catalogue?.