Towards Digital Age: Trends of Academic Libraries in Mainland China

1. Towards Digital Age: Trends of Academic Libraries in Mainland China PRDLA 2010 Meeting Fudan • Shanghai 2010.10.20

2. Outline • Introduction • Challenges • Trends

3. Introduction • The cause of academic libraries is part of the cause of higher education • The reform and development of academic libraries are depending on the reform and development of higher education of China

4. The development of Higher Education in China Source：Yearbook of China Education，Website of the Ministry of Education

5. Public higher institutions 1908 • 4 years 740 • 2 or 3 years 1168 • Including vocational institutions1015 • Adults higher institutions 413 • Private higher institutions906 • Another source (by 2009.9.16.): 1983

6. The development of academic libraries source：Journal for Academic Libraries, statistics by Steering Committee for Academic Libraries

7. Case: Peking University Library Note: collection not including digital resource

8. Administrative mechanism • Bureau of Higher Education, Ministry of Education –Policy making • Steering Committee for Academic Libraries—Advisory and Coordinating • Library Society of Academic Libraries—Scholarly communication activities

9. Cooperation and resource sharing • National : • 3 “C”-CALIS, CASHL, CADAL • DRAA-Digital Resource Acquisition Alliance • Regional • Local • Special

10. Challenges • In general, as for library development, this is the best period in the history • However, we are facing serious challenges • Fast changes • Unbalanced development

11. Environment changes • E-publishing • E-communication • E-science • E-learning • E-everything • Wireless networking • Open access

12. User changes • Reading behavior • Browsing • Scattering • Self-service • One-stop access • Copy and paste • Leaving library • Social networking

13. Library changes • Catalog became weak • Cataloging is out of main stream • Circulation goes down • Reference decrease • Outsourcing increase • Digital conservation and preservation • Integrating e-resource with paper material • ……

14. Reportabout Catalog for LC（2006）: The destabilizing influences of the Web, widespread ownership of personal computers, and rising computer literacy have created an era of discontinuous change in research libraries—a time when the cumulated assets of the past do not guarantee future success. The library catalog is such an asset. Today, a large and growing number of students and scholars routinely bypass library catalogs in favor of other discovery tools, and the catalog represents a shrinking proportion of the universe of scholarly information.

15. The catalog is in decline, its processes and structures are unsustainable, and change needs to be swift.

16. Change is so fast and broad, we are not fit in various aspects: • Vision and attitude • Administration • Management • Organization • Work flow • Staffing • Standard • ……

17. Trends • Facing so many changes, it’s useless to resist or stand by, rather, we have to promote the digital library construction, from “Hybrid” to “E-only”. • We may need to pay attention to the following trends: • Resource filtering and evaluation • Infometric services

18. Embedding knowledge service into e-science and e-learning • Information literacy education • Mobile services • Data linking and knowledge organizing with ontology • Cloud services

19. More and more, we need a lot of technicians and tools • Staff training and knowledge sharing will be the proper way • And, cooperation!

20. Thanks！