Conference 2009

Conference Welcome
Sul H. Lee, Dean
Peggy V. Helmerich Chair
University of Oklahoma Libraries


1:00–2:15 p.m.
James G. Neal
Vice President for Information Services
and University Librarian
Columbia University Libraries

What Do Users Want? What Do Users Need? W(h)ither the Academic Research Library?
What shapes and extends user expectations? How well is the library positioned to meet and exceed those needs? How are library collections, services, technology, space, staffing and organization influenced by these developments? What new roles and responsibilities are being embraced and advanced? This paper outlines the growing desires and requirements of the academic research library user under the impact of digital and network technologies, with a focus on the student, the teacher, and the researcher.


2:15-3:00 p.m.
Ronald G. Dunn
President and CEO
Cengage Learning

The Relevance Gap and How to Cross It: Factors in Misalignment between Libraries and Faculty and Models for Improved Student Experience
A recent study revealed a stark contrast in the perceived mission of the academic library between those who run it and those who use it, or, perhaps, do not use it. Professors seem to have cast librarians in a role of inventory managers, while librarians view libraries as an information gateway. This paper addresses factors that contribute to misaligned perceptions about the purpose of the library between the library and faculty. By whose standards should we judge relevance—libraries’, professors’, or students’? It also explores ways to bridge the relevance gap and describes cases where librarians and faculty, by foregoing traditional roles, have collaborated to construct learning experiences that far exceed student expectations.





  

8:30-9:15 a.m.
Bernard F. Reilly
President
Center for Research Libraries

When Machines Do Research: Text-Mining and Other Uses of Newspapers and News Reports
As the “first rough draft of history,” the pages of the world’s newspapers provide a detailed record of the notable moments and interests of the communities for which they were produced. Today news is produced and delivered in digital media that are inherently dynamic and fugitive, challenging society’s ability to ensure the survival of yesterday’s reporting for future study. News in both paper and electronic form is now being mined for a variety of purposes by researchers in the humanities and social sciences, using human and machine intelligence. This paper will draw upon recent CRL findings on new work by scholars and researchers using news sources.


9:15-10:00 a.m.
Fred Heath
Vice Provost and Director
University of Texas Libraries

Documenting the Global Conversation: Relevancy of Libraries in a Digital World
Libraries have done this before –re-thought their roles and re-tooled themselves in the midst of convulsive changes in communications. False starts and missteps are part of the response. At Oxford, Duke Humphries Library was closed and Shakespeare’s first folio was tossed as the University adjusted to the impact of the printing press upon teaching, learning, and research. The digital tsunami looms over the scholarly community in much the same way, as publishing, universities and libraries assess the challenges to their relevancy in the first decades of revolutionary change. This paper will review the challenges confronting research libraries and suggest steps necessary to ensure a continuing, meaningful role.




10:30-11:15 a.m.
Barbara I. Dewey
Dean of Libraries
University of Tennessee Libraries

Through Any Means Available: Connecting People with Scholarship
This paper focuses on the 21st century research library’s role for connecting people to scholarship. Meeting this challenge requires new organizational strategies, communication techniques, funding approaches, and pedagogies to enable students, faculty, scholars, and alumni to connect to the resources they need to be successful throughout their life. Connecting means locating, using, creating, and interacting and is active rather than passive. It goes beyond the traditional boundaries of the library, the campus, and even higher education. Connecting means exposing the world to the intellectual output of the university community. In order to thrive, the research library must focus on the broad and deep connections that make sense to people as they engage in daily life.


11:15-12:00 p.m.
Carton Rogers
Vice Provost and Director of Libraries
University of Pennsylvania

There’s Always Tomorrow? Libraries on the Edge
There is an old saw about a young man adapting a persona and then spending the rest of his life trying to create a new one. To even meet, let alone exceed, user expectations in the digital age do research libraries need to shed their old personae and fundamentally re-invent themselves? Can we really categorize our users and their expectations? What are the metrics that will inform our repositioning? Is time and the information marketplace moving too fast for us to get in front of rising user expectations? This paper provides some possible answers to these very difficult questions.

CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN Sul H. Lee, Dean Peggy V. Helmerich Chair University of Oklahoma Libraries CONFERENCE COORDINATOR Rhonda Cannon Assistant Dean of Libraries for Administrative Services University of Oklahoma Libraries CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Susan Russell, Ila Coffman, Matt Stock CONFERENCE SPONSORS Blackwell EBSCO Information Services Gale, part of Cengage Learning Rittenhouse Book Distributors, Inc. Unlimited Priorities Corporation YBP Library Services

Speakers Barbara I. Dewey Dean of Libraries University of Tennessee Libraries Ronald G. Dunn President and CEO Cengage Learning Brinley Franklin Vice Provost, University Libraries University of Connecticut Libraries Fred Heath Vice Provost and Director University of Texas Libraries Anne Kenney Carl A. Kroch University Librarian Cornell University Library James G. Neal Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian Columbia University Libraries Bernard F. Reilly President Center for Research Libraries Carton Rogers Vice Provost and Director of Libraries University of Pennsylvania