What Faculty Want

Roger C. SchonfeldIthaka Research

www.ithaka.org/research

ICOLCMontreal, Quebec

April 24, 2007

Questions for Discussion

• How Faculty Members Value the Library • As new options develop, the environment is becoming increasingly

competitive for libraries. Should they manage a strategic retreat from the gateway function or develop a strategic response?

• The Future of Books• Few librarians or faculty members view e-books as being fundamentally

transformative. Will they be proved right?

• Preservation and Archiving• Everyone agrees this is essential, and yet faculty are confused; how can

librarians provide desperately needed leadership for preservation?

• Repositories• How should repositories be managed if they are primarily used to store

and disseminate local knowledge assets?

• How can groups of libraries tackle each of these priorities more effectively than individual libraries acting on their own?

How Faculty Members Value the Library

How important is it to you that your library provides each of the following

functions?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Gateway Archive Buyer

• Perceived dependence on the library is in decline.

• The buyer function is most highly valued.

• This pattern holds across almost all stratifications of faculty members.

• Is this the function to which the library adds most value?

Valuation of the Library by Discipline

How important is it to you that your library provides each of the following

functions? Gateway.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Humanists SocialScientists

Scientists Econ.

2003 2006

• There are noticeable disciplinary differences in sources of value.

• The value of the library’s gateway function is perceived to be in steep decline among scientists and economists.

• As new options develop, the environment is becoming increasingly competitive for libraries. How can they thrive in this marketplace?

The Future of Books

• E-books are ill-used by faculty and rarely important to them, and few expect them to become so in five years’ time.

• There is widespread skepticism among faculty members and librarians that e-books can fully replace print versions (with notable disciplinary variation).

• Many librarians view e-book licensing as a very important function. Are they responding to faculty demand, anticipating it, or focusing on students?

Share Reporting that E-Books Are Very Important to their Research and

Teaching

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very/extremelyimportant

Not very/not at allimportant

Now

In Five Years

Preservation and Archiving

• The perceived importance of hard-copies and of their preservation are in decline everywhere.

• Both faculty members and librarians have become more focused on preservation of electronic materials.

• There is consistent confusion among faculty; how can librarians provide desperately needed leadership for preservation?

• How should this shift be managed strategically, to avoid some of the challenges that arose from the massive reformatting of newspaper collections?

“Regardless of how reliable and safe electronic collections of journals are,

it will always be crucial for the college or university library to maintain hard-

copy collections of journals.”

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2003 2006

My Library Some Libraries

Repositories

• Repositories are far more common at universities than at colleges, although there is widespread interest in them.

• Their main use is for images and special collections, and cross-institutional sharing is important.

• The objective is to control and preserve the institution’s intellectual assets and locally-generated knowledge.

• How should repositories be managed and when should they be managed on a cross-institutional basis?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Very Small Small Medium VeryLarge/Large

Preprints of Articles by Your Faculty

Images (eg art and artifacts)

Questions for Discussion

• How Faculty Members Value the Library • As new options develop, the environment is becoming increasingly

competitive for libraries. Should they manage a strategic retreat from the gateway function or develop a strategic response?

• The Future of Books• Few librarians or faculty members view e-books as being

fundamentally transformative. Will they be proved right?

• Preservation and Archiving• Everyone agrees this is essential, and yet faculty are confused; how

can librarians provide desperately needed leadership for preservation?

• Repositories• How should repositories be managed if they are primarily used to store

and disseminate local knowledge assets?

• How can groups of libraries tackle each of these priorities more effectively than individual libraries acting on their own?

What Faculty Want

Roger C. Schonfeldrcs@ithaka.org(212) 500-2338

www.ithaka.org/research

The Transition to an Electronic-Only Environment

• Faculty are becoming prepared for the cancellation of print versions to allow exclusive reliance on e-journals, but are less ready to see backfiles discarded.

• Future opportunities to contemplate strategic responses will continue to vary tremendously by discipline.

• A strategic approach is urgently needed, both on the campus level and across the community, to ensure that this transition proceeds effectively and securely.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Fine with me tocancel print

versions

Happy to seeprint backfiles

discarded

Librarians

Faculty

Preferences for Academic Journals

This characteristic is “very important” in influencing the decision where to

publish articles

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Wid

eci

rcula

tion

and r

eadin

gN

o c

ost

to

publis

h

Pre

serv

ation

is a

ssure

d

Hig

hly

sele

ctiv

e

Acc

ess

ible

indevelo

pin

gA

vaila

ble

for

free

• Maximizing the impact of their work is the most important feature of a scholarly communications system for scholars themselves.

• Disciplines differ to some degree on the specifics, but the “impact” generalization holds true for all.

• How can we best design a system that responds to authors’ understandable desire to maximize impact?