ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 4 2 6 / C&RL News Free, le e , or subsidy? H ie future role of lib ra rie s B y W illia m L. W h its o n Libraries’ mainstay: Providing access, gateways, and assistance L ibraries today must adapt to a combina­tion of changes so unprecedented and fun­ damental that our very future is in question. Survival depends on identifying our unique role: what we do that no one else can or will. I believe that the unique role of libraries has al­ ways been an economic one: what I call “pro­ viding subsidized access to shared resources.” Diminishing roles for libraries What about collecting and storing information resources? Isn’t that our main role? In fact, many other organizations, agencies, and individuals, both public and private, collect and store in­ formation, and with the digital and telecom­ munications revolution, what others have is becoming increasingly available. In the evolv­ ing electronic environment, it is no longer nec­ essary or economically practical for us to con­ tinue to give this role nearly as much importance as we have in the past. As a “node” on the Internet—which will begin to function as world library— the individual library will simply be one information supplier among many. What about organizing information for re­ trieval? While we may have had a significant role in the development of library cataloging standards and practices, most indexing and bib­ liographic control of even library materials has always been done by others in the scholarly and publishing worlds. In spite of the efforts some in the research library community are making to shape retrieval mechanisms in the electronic environment, most of these devel­ opments are being driven by forces in the com­ puter and commercial spheres, and too quickly for us to keep up with, let alone dominate. We can influence aspects of the evolving retrieval structures, but this will also be a relatively marginal role for libraries. What about library instruction? While those using information resources may have more need for instruction than ever before, and aca­ demic libraries in particular may still play a part in providing systematic instruction, there is little evidence that many information users look to libraries for such instruction. More important, however, the network revolution has thrown the doors wide open and vastly extended the population of people with some expertise in information seeking. Most o f the instruction taking place in the future will probably occur through other channels (even if it’s being done by librarians freelancing). None o f these traditional concepts affords us a unique role that will ensure our survival. The unique role of libraries What libraries always h a v e done, and no one else will do, is provide a particular client or “user” constituency with access to shared re­ sources at a cost below what they would have to pay on their own: in other words, subsi­ dized access to shared resources. The concept of shared resources is funda­ mental. The library’s constituency has shared interests and finds it cheaper to pool funds and share resources than to require each individual to acquire everything he or she needs. In theory, anyone with enough money could purchase access to all he or she needed. In fact, many business enterprises do this routinely. Even in the scholarly community, most faculty mem­ bers probably get most of their information through purchase or other nonlibrary channels, and changes in the electronic networked envi­ ronment and in the publishing world will make William L. Whitson is service innovation coordin ator in the Research Services & Collection Development Department a t the University o f Califom ia-B erkeley Library; e-mail: bwhitson@Iibrary.berkeley.edu mailto:bwhitson@Iibrary.berkeley.edu July/August 1 9 9 4 / 4 2 7 them even less dependent on their local library. particular library or consortium may arrange to pay one level o f subsidy for undergraduate stu­ dents for a certain set of periodical titles, and a lesser subsidy for other titles, and a still differ­ ent subsidy for other groups such as faculty or graduate students or alumni library cardholders. Transactions would take place as simply as now, but the charge presented to the individual requestor would depend on the person’s sta­ tus determined by the authentication process. The library “selection” process would thus be extended to include not only which resources should be provided, but what level o f fee (if any) would be assessed for each clientele group. Contributions of the new library What, then, will be our role? Our unique “value- added” contributions will be in three areas: 1 ) A ccess: providing our own constituents with access to the resources they need, and subsidizing the costs o f access to the extent necessary to make the use of those resources practical. This would include traditional pur­ chase and ownership, but increasingly will mean leasing electronic access. Providing the computer hardware, software, and telecommu­ nications facilities necessary for effective utili­ zation of such resources will also be a critical library role. For some time to come, a signifi­ cant fraction o f our clients will not have the equipment which would enable them to use the electronic resources most efficiently. 2 ) Gateway: presenting the resources avail­ able through the library “gateway” in the most user-friendly manner. This applies to the way we describe and publicize our services, the lay­ out o f the library, signage, etc., and to the de­ sign o f OPAC, CD-ROM network, gopher, and other interfaces. Increasingly, we will design integrated “client” gateway software, which guides the client to the most relevant resources. 3 ) R esearch assistan ce: assisting clients in finding and using information resources. People will always need help, no matter how well- designed the gateway. The intellectual prob­ lems o f defining one’s information need, relat­ ing it to the increasingly large and complex network o f world information resources, and searching those resources efficiently, require more higher-order thinking than ever before. We must ensure that we continue to have at least some staff knowledgeable enough to pro­ vide this kind o f intellectual assistance, and structure access to that assistance so as to ra­ tion it to those who really need it. ■ Most o f those in the academic community, how­ ever, cannot afford to purchase everything they need individually. They rely on libraries to ac­ quire or provide access to it. Libraries, how­ ever, will still have to “select” which resources their particular clienteles most need to access. "Free a n d fee" You will notice that I do not say “free access.” Most o f us accept as a cardinal rule the stric­ ture that we should always provide access to scholarly resources “free o f charge.” At most, fees might be levied for “luxury services” such as document delivery. I believe the time has com e for us to begin to provide “differentiated access”— some resources free, others for a fee. How can we possibly justify charging our primary clientele fees for basic library materi­ als and services? First, we should acknowledge that access to resources through the library has never b een entirely “free.” We have always “charged” in what we require o f the user in terms o f time, effort, investment in learning access protocols (research methods!), and in terms o f compliance with bureaucratic proce­ dures. (Indeed, one might argue plausibly that, much o f the time, many o f our constituents al­ ready find our “prices” too high. They choose either to get their information some other way or to do without.) Certainly, for some faculty, it is much “cheaper” to pay a few dollars for an article delivered in the mailbox than to spend the time and effort necessary to find the article in the library and photocopy it. More important, however, is the fact that we can no longer afford to make all relevant resources available to our faculty and students free. I think most o f us would agree it is pref­ erable to make some resources available for a fee which covers at least part o f the cost (and deters unnecessary use) than not to make those resources available at all. If we are to remain relevant today, we must becom e the “cheaper gateway” through which our constituencies can have access to whatever information resources they need. As tran saction s take p lace increasingly through electronic channels, we can easily build in authentication and accounting mechanisms which will allow us to charge users partial fees. The negotiation o f licensing agreements with commercial information vendors will have to include provisions for differentiated access. For example, with a periodical article supplier, a