Library Future

The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas.
That's what Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning and programs at the University of California System, told a room full of university librarians Wednesday at Baruch College of City University of New York, where the higher education technology group Ithaka held a meeting to discuss "sustainable scholarship."

Librarians who really know a subject, rather than knowing a library system or the products the library provides, will have a "copious understanding of the life cycle of publication and could help at any juncture." Though this flips the relationship librarians have to publisher being involved throughout the creation of knowledge, not just in the consumption of completed publications. Greenstein feels this is "what librarians are ideally suited to do."