Day 9: Finale

It’s hard to believe it’s the last day! We met for the last time in the majestic Weston Room at the Maughan Library. In the morning we summed up what we had learned over the past two weeks. One important thing Anthony mentioned was not to get too focused on metrics and big numbers. If we look just at metrics, we may choose to cut a journal subscription that has low usage. However, that journal may relate to a small research area, and it may be vitally important to the people in that area. As librarians, we need to make intelligent decisions and understand all of our user population, not just the biggest/loudest parts of it.

Another thing I have been thinking about over this course is the effect of new technology on information behavior and searching. We talk a lot about the next big thing, about how technology keeps getting better and better. However, I think one of the most important things going forward is going to be how we manage that content. It’s not just how fast we can create content, or how much or how cheaply, but how to are able to organize and find things. The Internet, for example, has really very little in terms of organization. Libraries and archives may have good enough technology to put loads of digitized content online, but what good is it if no one can find it easily? The infrastructure underlying it (and that includes content management systems, DAM, union catalogs, large database collections and proper indexing) has to be clear and robust for us to really benefit from the improvement of technology. One example of this would be ProQuest’s Art and Architecture Collection, which combines multiple databases under one search interface. Their science journals database serves the same function.

 

We then visited the Book Library at the Courtauld Institute. The library was in the basement, and had a strange cathedral-like quality to it with groin vault ceilings and spiral staircases throughout. The librarian showed us around the library and to the amazing shelves and shelves of architectural photos and artwork histories that make up a lot of the collection. There are plans to perhaps digitize this material in the future, but apparently it would be primarily to free up space in the library. The Courtauld Library was the most specialized collection we have seen on this trip, and it means they have a different set of priorities than others we visited. They support the research of students and faculty, and also use some of the resources of University College London libraries. They have a small collection of online resources, so most of their work is with users directly in the library. It was helpful to see how a small library makes decisions about using technology in the library – they seem to have great success still with analog material, so it’s definitely still possible to have a useful print-heavy library.

Afterwards, our entire group had a lovely dinner at Spaghetti House on Charlotte Street. The highlight of the evening was certainly the cheeky faux-folk ballad “The Bold Librarian.” Really it must be heard to be believed!