Library and Information Science Commons^™

The Research Library Of The Future: Less Selection, More Curation, Christine Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

Only a decade ago, this definition of a research library seemed adequate (Borgman, 2000, p.38): Librarians tend to take a broad view of the concept of a library. In general terms, they see libraries as organizations that select, collect, organize, conserve, preserve, and provide access to information on behalf of a community of users. Revisiting this definition today, libraries seem both broader and narrower in scope. The scope is narrower in that libraries are doing far less selecting and collecting of journals as they move from purchase to lease models. Research libraries rapidly are approaching the “e-only tipping point” (Johnson …