The future of libraries is being shaped today by emerging technology that is transforming the way information is created and disseminated. One indicator of the future of libraries is the push to provide increasing amounts of information in electronic format.
Outsell's recent Briefing "TrendAlert: The Future Of Libraries", which has been made available in full to SLA members, examined the pace at which traditional libraries are being converted into new flavors of "digital" or "virtual" libraries. One measure of that pace is the extent to which content buying centers are spending on print vs. electronic content products. Outsell research shows that none of three major sectors (corporate, government, and academic libraries) has come as far in the purchase and deployment of electronic resources as it predicted it would in 2002.
Outsell analyst Joanne Lustig sees several reasons for the discrepancies:
- In education, much scholarly communication content is still print-only.
- In government, there is a large aging workforce with an aversion to electronic resources, and federal mandates require hard-copy archives of many materials.
- In all sectors, challenges around digital-content pricing, licensing, distribution and rights management have stymied movement to an all-digital world.
The Briefing examines the trend to digital libraries as part of an overall analysis of the forces that are bringing about huge changes in the mission and services performed by libraries. For more information about this report contact Joanne Lustig at jlustig@outsellinc.com.
Check out Recent Industry Reports for more surveys and reports on the information industry.
RSS
Feedback form
