The Librarian, the Scholar, and the Future of the Research Library

(Hardback)

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Today's research librarian exists within an environment of rapid and unrelenting change. A wide and increasing variety of technological advances are transforming the communication, organization, and storage of information and the librarian's traditional function. This work represents analytical discussion of the functional role of the research librarian, as well as the relationship between the research librarian, the scholar, and the record of scholarship. Key points include an in-depth, analytical treatment of the future nature of the research library and the future role of the research librarian; fresh appraisals of research library co-operation and the application of technology to research libraries; and a look at preservation alternatives within the context of the research library's future. Eldred Smith identifies the essential contribution that the research librarian makes to this scholarly process, as well as how and why the librarian has, throughout history, been unable to fulfill the role completely. He explores the scholar's information-seeking practices, and identifies the reasons why these are at odds with the information-organization practices of librarians. Also probed is the conflict that the librarian feels between preservation and the use of research library collections, discussing how this conflict has influenced research library policy and practice. Smith discusses the new electronic information technology as both a treat to the continuation of the research librarian's historical role and as an opportunity to fulfill that role more completely than in the past. Also discussed are the steps that the research librarian needs to take in order to use the new technologies to advantage, including a major redirection of collection preservation activities.

Reviews

The Librarian and the Scholar, the running title of this extended essay on reasarch libraries, is the product of a long, thoughtful, and sometimes turbulent career in research librarianship; the result is equally thoughtful and reflective of troubling questions facing the field. At its heart the book, consisting of seven short chapters and a bibliographic essay, concerns the construct of 'the record of scholarship' as the particular responsibility of the research librarian, a construct potentially threatened by the chaos and information overload caused by new technology, or conversely saved and enhanced by the consolidating blessing of the electronic era in information management....-LRTS
The Librarian, the Scholar, and the Future of the Research Library discusses the roles of the research library and the research librarian in an environment of rapid and unrelenting social and technological change; appraises research library cooperation and the application of new technologies in research libraries; and looks at preservation alternatives. The book also investigates the conflicts between the information seeking practices of scholars and the information organization practices of librarians.-Bulletin of the American Society for Information Society
"The Librarian, the Scholar, and the Future of the Research Library discusses the roles of the research library and the research librarian in an environment of rapid and unrelenting social and technological change; appraises research library cooperation and the application of new technologies in research libraries; and looks at preservation alternatives. The book also investigates the conflicts between the information seeking practices of scholars and the information organization practices of librarians."-Bulletin of the American Society for Information Society
"The Librarian and the Scholar, the running title of this extended essay on reasarch libraries, is the product of a long, thoughtful, and sometimes turbulent career in research librarianship; the result is equally thoughtful and reflective of troubling questions facing the field. At its heart the book, consisting of seven short chapters and a bibliographic essay, concerns the construct of 'the record of scholarship' as the particular responsibility of the research librarian, a construct potentially threatened by the chaos and information overload caused by new technology, or conversely saved and enhanced by the consolidating blessing of the electronic era in information management...."-LRTS

Author Bio

ELDRED SMITH is a Professor at the University of Minnesota. He has served as University Librarian/Director of Libraries at the University of Minnesota, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the University of California at Berkeley. His articles have appeared in College and Research Libraries, The Library Journal, The Canadian Library Journal, as well as other journals, symposia, and anthologies.