Library Management Team

Notes from December 16, 2005 Meeting

Attending: Ross Atkinson, Karen Calhoun, Lee Cartmill, Tom Hickerson, Anne Kenney, Janet McCue, Jean Poland, Sarah Thomas, Ed Weissman

1) Information Management and Scholarly Communications, 2006-2010

Tom presented his document Information Management and Scholarly Communication, 2006-2010 for LMT discussion. This is a response to a request from Sarah for his vision for library information technology--what the Library's priorities should be and the directions we should be heading. Tom introduced the document by stating that its intent is to be strategic rather than comprehensive and that it focuses on areas in which we have the opportunity for distinguished achievement. There was general agreement about the trends in the report and some of the recommendations, but discussion ensued about the speed with which we will reach the point when digital is no longer the "surrogate" for print but instead is itself the Library's primary "collection" of information sources. This change will require a sweeping assessment of the Library's organizational structure. There was also discussion about the likely needs of our user community over the next five years and the speed with which the information market will migrate to digital from print. Will focusing more resources on scholarly communications and digital collections meet the real needs of our users over the next five years? More intensive studies of our users work practices were suggested. LMT also agreed that equivalent vision documents should be created for public services, technical services and collections.

Sarah summed up the discussion by saying that that over the next two years we should study user work practices and needs, develop vision statements for collections, public services and technical services, analyze this information, and then look to implement our vision. At the same time, we need to make decisions about priorities and funding for next year. Tom will take LMT's specific comments and propose in a white paper how we might best move forward.

During the discussion, Karen recommended a paper by Carl Lagoze and others in the November 2005 issue of D-LIB Magazine: What is a Digital Library, Anyway? <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november05/lagoze/11lagoze.html>.

The document Information Management and Scholarly Communication, 2006-2010 is available on the Staff web site at <http://www.library.cornell.edu/staffweb/docs/information_mangement_and_scholarly_publishing1205.doc>.

Edward Weissman