Today's Academic Libraries

For any institution, financial concerns and the ongoing need for the cooperation of like-minded groups and individuals are popular topics. Although they were not the only academic libraries in existence, "Harvard and Yale were the first libraries to establish endowments" (Weiner) and "in 1889, a group of 13 college librarians . . . recommended [to the American Library Association] that a college library section be formed" ("History").

The Association of College and Research Libraries was formed and dedicated themselves to "enhancing the ability of academic library and information professionals to serve the information needs of the higher education community and to improve learning, teaching, and research" ("About ACRL"). When looking for information on the history of academic libraries, very few article can be found which do not focus on the very recent past. Instead, librarians are focused on the future, and while there are definite attempts to integrate lessons learned in the past into the libraries of the present (Asher), I think that the forward-thinking trend of searchable resources reflects the drive to constantly improve that is characteristic of academic libraries.

Academic libraries serve as a resource not only for students, but for faculty and staff, and even the public. Besides books, their communities gain access to scholarly journals and online databases which may not be available otherwise. Because of the variety of needs they serve, academic libraries look for creative solutions to facilitate their patrons' access to their resources. Some become information hubs, study centers, or even abandon the physical building altogether and got to where the students are (Howard).

In the twenty-first century, academic libraries sometimes struggle to keep up with the demands for increasingly newer and more costly technologies. (Miller) Some changes are frowned upon and resisted, while others hurry to make way for advancements (Shorten, Seikel, and Arhberg). The pros and cons of change are mainly concerned with the way the change will affect the staff and the budget, since the majority of the patrons (the students) won't use the library over a period of time long enough to make them "set in their ways." (Turney, et al.)

As academic libraries become more and more centered around their digital resources, there are some arguments towards making the physical locations obsolete. (Howard) On the other hand, research has shown that many libraries are successfully making themselves indispensable to their campuses. (Ryan and Garrison; Oakleaf; Applegate) Although the don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, I believe the key to the "survival" of academic libraries rests in a balance between the digital and physical, the floating and the anchored libraries.