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List:       web4lib
Subject:    [WEB4LIB] Study: Internet Usage in Academic Libraries
From:       chrism () thecommunitylibrary ! org (Chris Murphy)
Date:       2002-04-27 13:50:41
Message-ID: 3CCAE4F1.EEBA50E5 () thecommunitylibrary ! org
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gprice wrote:
> I just posted this blurb to the VAS&ND weblog. I think it might be of interest.
> ...
> http://www.clir.org/pubs/issues/issues27.html#national
> From the article, "Eighty percent of the students and faculty members who
> responded to a recent national survey stated that the Internet has changed
> the way in which they use campus libraries. More than one-third of the
> respondents overall and half of those in fields such as business and
> engineering now use the library less than they did just two years ago.

During the late 1980's and early 1990's, a time of budget cuts and weak economy for \
the  state of Oregon, I was on the research faculty at Oregon State University. Each \
year I and other faculty were asked to recommend titles of scientific journals and \
other serials to cull because the university's library budget was axed yet again \
(disproportionately so, in my opinion). <tangent>Thanks to all the OSU \
librarians--you folks were always super.</tangent>

My experience has been 1) libraries are undervalued by many university presidents, \
provosts, and other executive managers; 2) expensive items such as academic journals \
serving relatively small populations of users are prime targets during lean budget \
years; 3) accumulating journal collections are expensive to store; and 4) \
increasingly computer literate faculty and students have more opportunities for \
broadband Internet access.

Probably for these reasons, I have seen greater use of online subscriptions to \
journals and databases; therefore, it comes as no surprise that faculty and students \
increasingly use the Internet to access information. If we lived in a world where \
physical academic journals, etc. were widely available inside the library, I believe \
we would see an increase in the use of the physical library for information access.

E-books have not replaced printed books mainly because people still like to hold and \
read a physical book and because physical books are still widely available in \
libraries. If libraries could no longer afford to buy popular fiction hardbacks, but \
could supply the text through an online source, we would probably see an increase in \
the number of people using the library "less than they did just two years ago".

Opinionatedly yours,

Chris Murphy

-- 
Christopher Murphy
Information Systems Manager
The Community Library, Ketchum, Idaho
chrism@thecommunitylibrary.org
http://www.thecommunitylibrary.org


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