Among Friends

During my more than 20 years serving Brown as University Librarian, the biggest single change to librarianship and how we serve our users has been the impact of information technology. In very rapid fashion the demand for access to electronic information at any hour of the day or night, and the availability of such information, has exploded. Our catalogs, indexes, abstracts, and even some monographs are now electronic and patrons may search them from their home or office computer. Faculty and students may also view parts of our collections that are digitized and utilize journals that we subscribe to in electronic form.

Over 15 percent of the Library's acquisitions budget is now devoted to accessing electronic information, and a substantial additional sum, in the operations budget, goes to software, hardware, and technical staff. The amount spent on acquiring electronic content has increased tenfold in six years. This rapid increase is in response to how users are requesting information, but also reflective of changes in the publishing industry, which is simply making more and more information available in digital form in response to the avenue offered by the Internet.

The explosion in digital information is not the only challenge that the Library faces. Since 1986, the prices of scientific and scholarly journals have inflated at an average of 8.5 percent a year, putting considerable strain on the Library's budget for acquisitions. Like many universities Brown has usually been unable to supplement the Library budget to keep abreast of inflation. The pressure has increased on the budget with our efforts to accommodate the demand for new digital-based journals and so the Library has met the need by transferring money from other sources, primarily print journals. The strain on the Library to support continuing obligations, from journals to online databases, makes it increasingly difficult to purchase as many monographs or to absorb the demands met by new academic programs.

As the manner in which faculty and students use information has changed, the Library staff have needed to transform their jobs. Today, librarians focus more on "information literacy" - not only helping people find information, but also sorting out reliable information from information which is biased. This is particularly a challenge with the Internet, where literally anyone can be a "publisher." Librarians also need to be outside the Library more, working with faculty on the development of information tools for use in the classroom and in research.

President Simmons' generosity to the Library over the last year, from supplements to our budget to moving ahead with our new "collections annex," is a great help to us in meeting these enormous challenges. The Friends of the Library, too, play a vital role in our evolving Library system. Friends membership dues support the acquisitions and operations of the Library, while sponsoring special publications and events to tell the Library's story. If you are already a member of Friends, we thank you for your support and hope you will introduce us to others who might like to join. If you are not a member, please consider becoming one and supporting the vital work of the Brown University Library.

For more information about membership to Friends of the Library, please contact Christy Law Blanchard at (401) 863-1518 or via e-mail a t FOL@brown.edu. You also may sign up today by completing the membership form on the back of this newsletter.