One of the most common phrases used to describe the academic library is "the heart of campus." It's a lovely sentiment that makes everyone feel good: the faculty and students on whose intellectual seriousness it reflects positively, and the librarians who are honored to be seen at the center of campus intellectual activity. When information was housed exclusively in physical documents that were located in the library, there was even an almost anatomical logic to the image: students and faculty flowed into and out of the library as a natural expression of their teaching and learning activities. However, as the information environment has undergone radical change over the past few decades, so to has the behavior of students and faculty. They still use the library and its resources, but in a shifting blend of old and new ways. Does the "circulatory system" model of the library's campus role still work?
In this Lively Lunch session, we will discuss a different construct: the idea of the library as engine rather than heart. In this model, the library is conceived as a centrally important component of the college or university that actively pushes the institution in the direction of its vision and goals, by consciously monitoring those goals and aligning its programs and practices explicitly in support of them. Critical discussion in the session will focus on a visual model of this alignment and its implications.
Tim is founder and convener of the Carolina Consortium, and an inventor of Journal Finder, the first Open URL link resolver. He was recently named the 2014 ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year.
