College and Research Libraries


Guest Editorial 
The Library as a Place 

In a recent article, Paul Evan Peters 
posed the question "Is the library a place 
in the age of networks?"* I have recently 
been involved in the design process for 
two libraries, the first to serve the sci-
ences, the second to provide services to 
the undergraduate and graduate col-
leges of Emory University. The latter fa-
cility has been dubbed the "library of the 
future," as it brings together traditional 
library functions and networked infor-
mation services. The question posed by 
Peters is one that a great many librarians 
are either asking themselves or are being 
asked to respond to by college and uni-
versity administrators, faculty, trustees, 
architects et al. Librarians would prob-
ably all like to answer with a resounding 
YES! Certainly as we deal with crowded 
conditions, asbestos abatement, retrofit-
ting for technology, and ADA (Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act) compliance, 
we realize how difficult and costly it is 
to work with existing library buildings. 

Many of us have hesitated in our re-
sponse to the question of the future of the 
library as a place because of the elec-
tronic revolution occurring in the in-
structional and research processes. If 
scholarship is up and running on the digi-
tal highway, will colleges and universities 
still need to invest in library facilities? I'm 
convinced that the answer to this question 
is an emphatic yes, and that the library will 
continue to be a place well into the fore-
seeable future. Over the next decade, the 
library as a place, and the services pro-
vided from it, may just be more central 
to the academic enterprise than at any 

time in the past. Indeed, that investment 
in the library infrastructure will be one 
of the best long-term investments an 
institution of higher learning can make 
in the coming years. Those institutions 
without appropriate library facilities 
may find themselves at a serious com-
petitive disadvantage. Why? Because 
the academic library will be one of the 
principal on-ramps to the information 
highway. It will also be a place where 
important pieces of scholarship flowing 
on the highway will be created. 

The integration of traditional library 
services and those that will support the 
emerging networked information serv-
ices poses a real challenge for the design 
of library facilities . Discussed below are 
the types of space needed to support 
some of the emerging networked service 
environment. These services aren't crys-
tal-ball activities dependent on the great 
seamless virtual information system hy-
pothesized for the future. Libraries are 
decades, if not a generation or more, 
away from that reality. These activities 
are the kind of stuff that librarians are 
contemplating or are dealing with right 
now, and for the foreseeable future. 

CONVERGENCE 

Library use is increasing. Many col-
leagues indicate that servic~ are being 
used at all-time high levels, in spite of 
cutbacks in funds for library collections 
and hours of service. This trend can be 
attributed primarily to the user's ability 
to identify more rna terial through access 
to online catalogs, databases, CDs, and 

* Paul Evan Peters, '1s the Library a 'Place' in the Age of Networks?" Educom Review 29 
(Jan./Feb. 1994): 62-63. 

283 



284 College & Research Libraries 

the Internet. The delight and the irony, 
of course, are that electronic access 
places the print resources in higher de-
mand. From a space perspective print 
collections and electronic resources need 
to coexist for the foreseeable future. 

Yet another point of convergence is 
the increasingly interdisciplinary nature 
of contemporary instruction and re-
search. Any good service librarian has 
long recognized that much user behav-
ior is unpredictable. Most users, except 
those with a high degree of library expe-
rience, just don't distinguish Reference · 
from Circulation from Interlibrary Loan, 
etc. These are librarian distinctions. We 
have traditionally compensated for this 
phenomenon by having a well-trained 
service staff that can provide referrals to 
the appropriate point of service. Distrib-
uted access via the electronic highway 
gives this challenge a whole new level of 
complexity. User behavior becomes 
even more unpredictable. That develop-
ment argues for integration of services 
and fewer service points. Fewer service 
points do not mean less service, but 
rather services that support the conver-
gence of research while still supporting 
the specialist through consultation. 

TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION 

The ongoing explosion in networked 
information services is likely to continue 
at a rapidly accelerating pace. Navigat-
ing the ocean of print, electronic, and 
visual information is becoming more, 
not less, difficult. This development em-
phasizes a teaching and instructional 
role. Increasingly, the librarian is being 
viewed as a central element in develop-
ing student and faculty skills for coping 
with the rising tide of information. 

Training facilities, almost an afterthought 
in library design, will be central to the mis-
sion of the library of the future. Ubraries 
need instructional facilities that will sup-
port access to the full gamut of media and 
the full range of instructional methodol-
ogy from small group to seminar. 

KNO~EDGECREATION 

One of the most exciting trends in aca-
demic libraries is the emerging role of 

July 1994 

knowledge creation: Traditionally, li-
braries have been repositories for infor-
mation, and at best gateways to other 
depositories. A number of exciting pro-
jects are under way that place the librar-
ian, and the information available 
through the library, into a partnership 
for the creation of knowledge services. 
These services bring together print, 
data, audio, and visual resources into 
software that can be used for instruc-
tional and research activities. Faculty, 
student, librarian, and computing spe-
cialist are collaborating to develop such 
services. Because much of the source 
material for these services resides in li-
braries, this trend will continue. 

Because this service has not tradition-
ally taken place in libraries, space to sup-

. port these activities doesn't exist. These 
new service spaces will need to address 
the collaborative, team nature of these 
activities. Libraries will also need new 
processing space to support conversion 
of print to digital format. 

What do these trends implicit in the 
evolving service environment mean for 
the library as a place? They mean that 
most of our library buildings ARE NOT 
designed to support the rapidly altering 
service model. The facilities that most 
librarians inhabit today were designed 
around print collections. In this model, 
user service areas are frequently . ap-
pendages to processing areas and book 
stacks. In the emerging model this rela-
tionship is reversed, or at the very least 
brought into a more appropriate bal-
ance. As our print collections continue to 
expand, for the foreseeable future a sub-
stantial portion of the collection will be 
housed in some form of compact shelving 
and/ or remote storage. New construction 
costs are simply too prohibitive to devote 
space exclusively to conventional open-
stack configurations. 

Libraries will need space for "tradi-
tional" library functions such as stacks 
and user seating, and more hybrid space 
that supports both the traditional and 
emerging service construct. New space 
will be primarily people space, not book 
stacks. The people space will be for serv-
ices, but not just service desks. In the 



library that has access, teaching, and 
knowledge creation at the heart of its 
mission, space will need to support and 
facilitate these activities. Flexibility, 
and the ability to adapt space to 
emerging and unanticipated service 
needs, will be the principal design re-
quirement for future facilities. What 
type of library space will be needed is 
the real question. 

In developing our facilities at Emory, 
librarians were on the cutting, if not 
bleeding, edge. There simply does not 
exist a documented body of knowledge 
relative to the design of the library of the 
future. Much of the knowledge accumu-
lated over the past one hundred years 
regarding successful library design isn't 
applicable to the current situation. Per-
haps the most revolutionary aspect of 
new library construction is not the facil-
ity itself, but the process needed to 
achieve the design. Traditionally, the 
process of library building design has 
largely been directed by the library staff 
in conjunction with an architectural 
team. Organizationally, the library of the 
future will be an amalgamation of vari-
ous elements drawn from across the aca-
demic spectrum. The services provided 
in the library of the future will be under-
taken by partnerships of scholars, li-

Guest Editorial 285 

brarians, and computing specialists. The 
design process must reflect this emerg-
ing organizational integration. This pre-
sents a real challenge to our planning 
efforts, but holds the promise for a more 
meaningful outcome, better suited to the 
networked environment. 

Not long ago, a computing-center di-
rector colleague remarked how difficult 
it has been for computing operations to 
make the transition from a data-process-
ing to a user-service operation. Comput-
ing operations traditionally have not 
had a place association with the user 
community. Libraries haven't had this 
problem because most members of the 
academic community have some degree 
of positive association with library serv-
ices and with the library as a place. This 
powerful historical inheritance is clearly 
an asset as we shape the library of the 
future. In the emerging environme:(lt of 
networked services, the library as a 
place would seem to have an exciting 
future for itself as a center for access and 
the creation of knowledge. The chal-
lenge, of course, is to articulate the serv-
ice mission and relate it to the continued 
need for the library as a place. 

ROD HENSHAW 
Director, Public Services 

Emory University 

IN FORTHCOMING ISSUES OF 
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Tenure and Turnover in Academic Libraries 
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