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Role of a 21 st Century Research Library in the Academy – Cornell Approaches

Role of a 21 st Century Research Library in the Academy – Cornell Approaches. Anne Kenney Xin Li July 3, 2009. Quick Introduction. University Founded in 1865 20,800 students 3,000 faculty 11,500 staff “Hottest Ivy” university Library A top-10 U.S. research library

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Role of a 21 st Century Research Library in the Academy – Cornell Approaches

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  1. Role of a 21st Century Research Library in the Academy – Cornell Approaches Anne Kenney Xin Li July 3, 2009

  2. Quick Introduction • University • Founded in 1865 • 20,800 students • 3,000 faculty • 11,500 staff • “Hottest Ivy” university • Library • A top-10 U.S. research library • 7.9 million print volumes • 393,000 e-books • 55,000 electronic journals • $50 million annual budget • 461 staff

  3. The Library in its Academy Research institutions are in the business of provoking thought and libraries should aid and abet that process.

  4. June 18, 2009 data • 134 learning professionals around the world • #125 Google Maps • # 127 RSS feeds Source: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/

  5. The Shifting Context of the Library Customization Openness Self Service Mutability Productivity Usability • Assessment • Marketing • Strategic Action • Business Plan • Competition • Resource Development Presentation by James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian of Columbia, for the ACRL New England Chapter, 2008 5

  6. Discover, Share, Participate, Create Sources: Data.gov, June 20, 2009 New York Times, May 17, 2009

  7. The Challenge From “maintaining relevance” to being indispensable

  8. Timeless Strategies

  9. What Matters to Cornell? Strategic Plan 2008 • Recruitment and retention of a quality and diverse faculty and staff • Increased diversity of students • Commitment to inter- and cross-disciplinary research and teaching • An international focus • Public service, land grant mission and beyond • Expansion and improvement of graduate and professional programs • Improvement and innovation in undergraduate teaching

  10. Position the Library

  11. What are the Big Issues? • Undergraduate students • Information competency • Learning outcomes • Graduate students • Attrition and completion rates • Faculty • Digital processes and content • Interdisciplinary research

  12. What Can the Library Do? • Undergraduate students • Information competency • Learning outcomes • Graduate students • Attrition and completion rates • Faculty • Digital processes and content • Interdisciplinary research

  13. Library Interventions - Undergraduates • Creating authentic and engaging research assignments • University of California-Berkeley model • Co-sponsored and funded by the Library and the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education • Students reported increase of their research skills

  14. A librarian and a professor review plans for a freshman writing seminar.

  15. BioG 1103 Poster Project Week 2 Student groups of three conduct orientation behavior study on fish, pillbugs or flesh fly larvae Week 3 Record data based on scientific approach, using replications and non-parametric statistical tests Weeks 3-4 Conduct primary literature research on the subject Week 6 Submit the first version of poster Week 11 Peer review of posters produced by other students

  16. BioG1303 Evaluation Rubric for Posters • Bullets use of rubrics clearly articulate expectations to students • Used in both peer review and instructor reviews • Examples include: • use of proper scientific nomenclature • statement of hypothesis(es) and prediction(s) • proper citations to methods, figures, statistical procedures, and sources • details results of analysis/testing and indicates significance level • interprets/evaluates reported results with respect to hypothesis

  17. Students conduct peer review of fellow students’ posters

  18. TAs select best poster

  19. Public Display of Award Posters

  20. Measuring Impact • Intervening at time of curriculum revision • Meeting accreditation standards in Middle States review of the university • Co-partnering with faculty in competition for Howard Hughes Medical Institute challenge grant to demonstrate excitement and creativity of science to undergraduates • Longitudinal assessment

  21. What Can the Library Do? • Undergraduate students • Information competency • Learning outcomes • Graduate students • Attrition and completion rates • Faculty • Digital processes and content • Interdisciplinary research

  22. Library Interventions - Graduates It takes longer to complete a doctoral degree today than 25 years ago.

  23. Impact in the Humanities

  24. Questions for the Library At what point(s) in their programs are graduate students particularly vulnerable? Prior to passing their qualifying exams? In the writing phase? How does regular use of library services and collections impact attrition and completion rates? What library services could be envisioned as part of an intervention strategy to reverse these trends? How would such intervention be measured?

  25. Library Interventions - Graduates • Extend library privileges to graduate students who are no longer enrolled • Re-conceive library facilities to provide graduate students from across disciplines with an intellectual sense of community and a neutral, safe place • Build on Information Competency Institute to create 4th year graduate student institute

  26. Measuring Impact A carefully selected set of strategies, defined by qualitative and quantitative data, could be crafted in cooperation with the Graduate School, and then tested, implemented, and measured overtime to determine their impact on reversing attrition and completion rates.

  27. What Can the Library Do? • Undergraduate students • Information competency • Learning outcomes • Graduate students • Learning and research • Degree completion • Faculty • Digital processes and content • Interdisciplinary research

  28. Library Interventions - Faculty • In-process research • New media art • Data-driven science • Inter-disciplinary research

  29. IN-PROCESS RESEARCH arXiv e-print repository • Repository for physics, math and computer science papers • 500,000 total submissions • 27 million full-text downloads in 2008 = 74,000 a day • Challenge: sustaining the success and library brand

  30. New Media Digital interfaces and artistic experimentation by international, independent artists.

  31. Data-Driven Science “To facilitate data-driven science at Cornell by developing cross-disciplinary data archiving and discovery tools.” • DISCOVER Research Service Group • Formed in 2008 • Domain scientists • Library • Center for Advanced Computing • Fedora Commons • Focuses • Curation • Preservation • Mining • Visualization

  32. Inter-disciplinary Research Academic centers and programs People Research and publications Events and seminars • Challenge: integrating scholarly resources and services Facilities and Labs ontology model

  33. Measuring Impact • Enabling new forms of scholarly expression on a global scale • Securing support/advocacy at the Provost level • Co-partnering with faculty and research centers • Adoption at other universities

  34. Implementation

  35. Organization - Yesterday

  36. Chief Technology Strategist Administrative Services Strategic Initiatives What does she do? Central Library Operations Scholarly Resources and Special Collections Teaching, Research, Outreach, and Learning Services Information Technologies

  37. Alignment – Ideas Behind It • Speed and Cost • Buy • Borrow • License

  38. Managing Transformation – Staff • Organizational climate survey • Strategic Alignment Group • Management Council Forest and trees, we need to have both.

  39. Decision Model Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bud_caddell/3651299665/

  40. IT Subject specialists Informatics Data-miners MBAs Legal advisors Designers Public relations experts Analysts Demographers Alignment – Skills • Reduced emphasis on Master of Library Science • Diversity of expertise

  41. The Power of Many – Combine and Diversify “The research library should be redefined as a multi-institutional entity.” No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century, Council on Library and Information Resources, 2008

  42. Some Bold Assertions Made at a plenary panel session at the Association of Research Libraries annual meeting in May 2009. • There is a collective wealth held hostage by redundant operations and collections at ARL libraries. • Many of the things we compete over don’t make our institutions more competitive. • Our history of collaboration may ironically make it more difficult to do radical collaboration. • Our staff would rather do more work than give up doing some things.

  43. Sample Audience Responses There is a collective wealth held hostage by redundant operations and collections at ARL libraries.

  44. Collective Wealth of ARL Members 2007/2008 Association of Research Libraries $3,914,758,950 10% savings = $391M!

  45. Partnership with Libraries • 2CUL – A deep partnership between Cornell and Columbia Libraries • Initial areas of focus: • collection development • technical services • Infrastructure • Testing model for potential to expand

  46. Partnership with Non-Libraries • Google: digitization • Amazon.com: print on demand • Internet Archive: free digital library

  47. Research Libraries in the 21st Century A balance between physical and virtual presence

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